Glass £>X ^H^S 

Book 3 A 3 

Gopyii^ht]^". 



GRAPHIC SCENES 

By 

Beverly Carradine 

Author of 

Pastoral Sketches — Pen Pictures — Remarkable Occur- 
rences — People I Have Met — A Journey to Palestine 
Sanctification — The Sanctified Life — Heart Talks 
The Better Way— The Old Man— Soul Help 
Bible Characters — Living Illustrations 
Etc, Etc, Etc. 



GOD'S REVIVALIST OFFICE, 
Mount Bi.j:vSSings, 
Cincinnati, O. 



Copyrighted, 191 1, by God's Revivalist Office. 



MAP. 6 19!| 



Contents. 



Page 



CHAPTER I. 

Earliest Recollections 7 

CHAPTER II. 

The Reward of Faithful Waiting 19 

CHAPTER III. 
A Rival at School 28 

CHAPTER IV. 
An UndeserTed Whipping , 35 

CHAPTER V. 

Things Not What They Seem 44 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Present of a Pony 54 

CHAPTER VII. 
Seeking Happiness Through Playing Hookey 64 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Lesson of the Ladder 69 

CHAPTER IX. 
A Lapse of Tears 80 

CHAPTER X. 

My Conversion 82 

CHAPTER XI. 
Call to the Ministry 91 

CHAPTER XII. 
The First Conference and Appointment 103 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The First Circuit Ill 



CHAPTER XIV. 
A Tuning Fork — A Strange Text — ^A Generous Gentile — 



A Kind Jew 119 

CHAPTER XV. 
Interesting Characters 127 

CHAPTER XVI. 
A Group of Preachers 135 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Trials and Sorrows 144 

CHAPTER XVII. 
An Incident and Its Lessons 149 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Kodak Pictures of Bishop Wightman and Dr. C. K. 

Marshall 159 

CHAPTER XX. 
My First Station — A Song in the Garden — The Ragged 

Coat 169 

CHAPTER XXI. 
The Young Lovers — A Dying Travelling Agent — A Photo- 
graph of Dr. J. B. McFerrin 178 

CHAPTER XXII. 
An Overconfident Preacher — A Sudden Death — An Hum- 
ble Man of God 187 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
A Faithful Physician— Ten Dollars— The Yellow Fever... 197 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
A Second Visit 'to the Sea Shore Camp Ground — Sta- 
tioned at Vicksburg 206 

CHAPTER XXV. 
A Steamboat Occurrence 216 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
Stationed in New Orleans — Dr. W. E. Mnnsey — The 



Louisiana State Lottery 227 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Tlie History of Two Cruelly Treated Children 239 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
The Street Cries of New Orleans 249 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
The Great Revival in Carondelet Street Methodist 

Church 257 

CHAPTER XXX. 
How I Obtained the Blessing 268 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
The Revival at Centenary Church in St. Louis 279 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
Called Before the Sanhedrim 290 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
The Clash with Free Masonry.. 299 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 
Skirmishes and Battles 308 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
The Victory and Revival at First Church 319 



GRAPHIC SCENES 



CHAPTER I. 
Eari.ie:st R:ecoi.i.i:cTioNS. 

In spite of all the wonders of material creation, 
life itself is the most amazing work of God, as pre- 
sented to the thoughtful human mind. The older 
we grow the more we stand amazed and awed in the 
study of every kind of existence possessing, as it does, 
the marvellous properties and attributes of motion, 
choice, instinct and reason. The wonder, of course, is 
greatest in considering human life with its multiplic- 
ity and complexity of faculties and powers. Here is 
a self-going machine of so intricate and perfect a 
nature or natures, that only an omniscient and omnipo- 
tent Being could have made it. 

But an additional surprise is the fact of our being 
unable, even in possession of this life, to go back 
nearer in recollection than two or three years of its 
beginning. One of the forces of our being called 
memory is not aroused or developed, we are told, to 
the extent that it can make records and pictures for 

7 



8 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



subsequent reference until we are over two years of 
age. The physical nature seems to be the first on 
deck; later comes the intellectual; and still later the 
spiritual. 

There are some who claim memories dating back 
into the first year; but I do not doubt that stories 
of their childhood, repeated early and often, produced 
this conviction. The narrative finally stamped itself 
on the mind, and feeling very much at home, at last 
posed as a veritable recollection of infantile days. 

With all of us there is a strange interest con- 
nected with that beginning of an existence which is 
never to end. Coming out of the blackness of nothing, 
we entered the world and for months were nothing 
but fussy, crying, eating, sleeping little animals, car- 
ing for nothing but food and rest. So far as thought 
was concerned we did not even know we were living. 

Then the mind slowly began to wake up, take 
notice, connect and separate objects, learn a few 
words, and then came the hour and day when we, in 
an indescribable sense, became conscious of ourselves, 
thought was aroused in some way, and on that occur- 
rence was based our first recollections. There were 
long mental lulls after that, and big gaps of days and 
weeks and perhaps months where we do not recall a 
person or circumstance. Then came another recol- 
lection, and then another, and after that increasing 
lines and groups, until behold! the procession and 



EaRIvISJS'C R^coi,i,sjctions. 



9 



rush of conscious' existence had begun never to end. 
I have thought that the first waking up of the mind 
is to the intellectual nature what conversion is to the 
soul. 

A strange fact connected with the very beginning 
of the life of the writer, cannot properly be called a 
memory of the incident, but is simply a reminiscence 
of a piece of family history told him repeatedly by the 
members as well as some of the servants of the house- 
hold. 

Early on the morning of April the fourth, I was 
born in our beautiful Southland, in the County of 
Yazoo, in the State of Mississippi. But instead of 
beginning life in the regular orthodox way by breath- 
ing and crying, I failed for some reason to take in the 
necessary inhalation of the world's atmosphere, and 
so began existence with beating heart and throbbing 
pulses, but breathless and silent. 

It seemed as if the child took a prophetic look 
at the life and world on which he had entered, and 
not caring to remain on such a planet that held so 
much of trial, labor and sorrow for him, concluded 
not to go farther, but to turn back and enter Heaven 
at once. 

This was so evidently what the infant was doing 
that the nurse gave me up as good as dead, while the 
screams of my mother and the heart-broken lamenta- 
tions of two of my aunts filled the room and house. 



lO 



Graphic ScKNi:s. 



Just at this juncture, old Aunt Esther, a true and 
tried family servant, full of expedients and all kinds 
of useful practical knowledge, hearing the shrieks, 
rushed into the room, and taking in the situation at a 
glance, caught the fast dying babe in her arms and 
filled the collapsed lungs with steady breathing from 
her own mouthy while manipulating at the same time 
the infant's chest, until finally the little one gave the 
first gasp, and then reluctantly turned back to earth 
with a bitter cry. 

This history was frequently told to me when I 
was a lad, and I was disposed to think then that a 
very great favor had been done me. But many times 
since, in days of weariness, loneliness, sorrow, need, 
the hatred of some, the betrayal of confidence by 
others, the loss of friends, the bereavement of loved 
ones, the accusation of enemies, the suffering of long 
sick spells, I have been sorely tempted to wish that old 
Aunt Esther had let the child go as he had started, 
to a glad, beautiful, restful Heaven. Surely such a 
world, filled with holy angels, with Christ present, 
and with no sin, sickness, pain or trouble ever there, 
would be a lovely and most desirable place for chil- 
dren to grow up in wisdom and stature, in grace and 
knowledge, and in favor with God and the inhabi- 
tants of the skies. 

My first recollection goes back to a period when 
I was between three and four years of age. Stand- 



Earliest Ri:coi,i.:ecTioNS. ii 



ing on the front porch of my father's house in the 
country, I was Ustening to a bugle whose notes ascend- 
ing from a pine-clad hillside a quarter of a mile away, 
floated across the intervening valley and fell upon 
my wondering ears. 

The county road led across this valley, wound up 
the hillside and through the pine grove, and then on 
to town sixteen miles away. Once a week a large 
wagon with an ox or mule team was sent to the coun- 
ty seat for supplies of various kinds. The musical 
strains I heard were the notes of a tin bugle blown by 
the returning driver, when mounting the crest of the 
hill he came in sight of the distant home and planta- 
tion. 

It was the first sound coming to me from the great 
busy world outside. I little thought as I hearkened to 
the plaintive echoes, that this same old world would 
summon me by clarion calls to leave home, to come 
over the hill and help it in its trouble. Nor did I 
dream that the time would ever be when I would cross 
ten thousand separating mountains and plains, and 
with Gospel trumpet in hand, sound in the ears of 
hundreds of thousands, the glad notes of a free and 
full salvation. 

So it happened that my first memory was a kind 
of figure of things to come ; a prophecy in symbol 
of what was to be in me and through me. Certainly 
it seems to the writer that the life he has followed 



12 



Graphic Scejne^s. 



since the Savior called him to leave home, has been 
one of highways, hills, towns, cities and constant 
journeyings., while he drives a Gospel wagon loaded 
down with heavenly supplies, and sounds trumpet 
calls about a wonderful world just out of sight over 
that last range of dark mountains called Death. 

My second recollection comes soon after the first, 
and stands related with the death of a personge 
known in the South in ante-Bellum days as the black 
"Mammy." 

The colored nurse of the Southern child was called 
by this title, and very tender and lasting often were 
the heart ties between the two. My nurse was named 
Margaret, and I heard from a number of lips after 
her entrance into Heaven high encomiums of her life 
and character. 

When I was quite a child, this kind, faithful wo- 
man died, and I have been informed that I was incon- 
solable. They told the sobbing child that she was' 
gone. I asked where? Some one lifted me in their 
arms and pointed up to the sky, saying, *'She has 
gone up there." Instantly my reply, according to in- 
formants, was, "Then bring a ladder and let us go 
after her." 

These speeches they tell me were made. The only 
recollection of the writer is the death of his nurse, 
the being held in somebody's arms who pointed up- 
ward, and my own heartbreaking sorrow. 



EarivIi:st Re:coli.j:ctions. 



13 



This poor colored woman on her deathbed left to 
the child she was deeply attached to, about all of her 
earthly possessions, in the shape of an iron tea kettle 
and a small oven or boiler of the same metal. 

I have no idea who got possession of these arti- 
cles of the old-time kitchen fireplace ; I only know that 
I did not. But at the same time I have never recalled 
this remembrance of the nursling by the poor slave on 
her deathbed without being deeply moved. 

Again, I see a kind of prophecy of a certain char- 
acter of life in this matter. All my days, if I have not 
been in a frying pan, I have been in the fire. If some- 
body was not cooking and roasting me in an oven, 
I was being treated by another person to a stream of 
scalding water from his own little hook-nosed kettle. 

Sometimes I have wished that Margaret had not 
left me those symbolic utensils. But as I began to 
notice, that like the Hebrew children, I did not perish in 
the flames ; and that furthermore, whenever the furnace 
of persecution was hottest, that the Son of God invari- 
ably came down and walked with me in the fire, giv- 
ing me the gladdest and most triumphant hours of 
my life — I ceased to repine, and have learned to praise 
God for the oven and kettle both in type and fulfill- 
ment. 

According to family chronology, my father sold 
his hill place and procured a swamp plantation on the 
Yazoo River, when I was just four years of age. 



14 



Graphic Scejnijs. 



There is a faint, misty remembrance of tree-lined 
roads and a dwelling standing by the riverside. But 
the clear third recollection of life is connected with 
one of the porches of the new home. The flooring 
must have been defective, for suddenly a plank tilted 
and I possess a vivid memory to this day of having 
been literally shot from the face and sight of the 
upper world and landed in darkness and dust under 
the veranda in question. 

I have not the faintest remembrance of anybody 
finding me there, and no recollection whatever of get- 
ting out. Of course, I must have gotten out, for here 
I am writing this chapter about my early days. But 
I have no proof that any one found me, and cannot 
for my life recall a face or form of young or old, 
white or black, who came after me under the house, 
and rescued me from my mortifying predicament and 
situation. 

The symbols hold good even in the third incident. 
For in the matter of salvation, I have never been 
able to point out a soul who came to me in the dark- 
ness of sin and led me to Christ. Not a being came 
to me in my gloom and misery. No man seemed to 
care for my soul. I woke to find myself under the 
house. The Savior himself found me there, and 
brought me up and out, into the light, love, service 
and beautiful fellowship of the kingdom of God. 

A few nights after our arrival at the new home, 



EarivIe^st Recoi,i,ections. ig 



my father aroused me from my warm bed, deep in 
the night, to see two steamboats passing. Partly from 
the cool air, and mainly from awe and wonder at the 
spectacle of the two great, sparkling, scintillating, 
nocturnal monsters in the river before me, I shook in 
my father's arms as though I had an ague. I recall 
his soothing words and touch, but was glad to escape 
the startling sight and get back to bed and a dream- 
less, peaceful pillow. 

Several months later my mother, not satisfied with; 
the swamp location, persuaded my father to purchase 
a home in Yazoo City, a town twenty miles distant 
by land and nearly forty by water. 

The morning we were to depart by steamboat, the 
family and house servants stood on the bank waiting 
for the vessel to land. The river was high, the cur- 
rent strong and the big steamer in swinging in to the 
shore encountered a great snag which entered one of 
the side wheel houses with a crash, and then ripped 
off a number of planks with a succession of loud 
noises that to one of the writer's few years and 
great inexperience was simply terrifying and unbear- 
able. It seemed to me that the end of the world had 
come. And the present carrying on of the steamer 
before us, coupled with the still vivid recollection o£ 
the two snorting, panting crafts of a memorable night 
before, gave birth to the conception, and intensified 
the idea, that steamboats were the natural enemies of 



i6 



Graphic Sce:n^s. 



children, and were bent upon the death and destruc- 
tion of Httle boys who were three or four years old, 
and two or three feet high. 

Anyhow, the impression was on me that Death was 
in the air, and the language of the heart was, "To 
remain here is to die! Why tarry we here any; 
longer !" 

Nor did I tarry. While the family, friends and 
servants were absorbed in watching the difficult land- 
ing of the boat, I, bent on saving my life, ran across 
the road, climbed a rail fence, and entering upon a 
furrow of the broad cotton plantation, made for the 
woods that stretched a long green wall against the 
horizon. Evidently I wanted a lodge in some vast 
wilderness, rather than become a sacrifice and burnt 
offering in the ways, walks, works and inventions of 
men. 

I have been informed that I had advanced fully 
one hundred yards over the cotton field before my 
absence was discovered. Then an elder brother and 
a couple of servants ran after, overtook, and brought 
me, panting and protesting, back to the landing, and 
then actually put me on the deck of the thing that 
seemed set for my destruction. 

Oh, how the family smiled, the neighbors tittered, 
the captain, clerk, pilot and deck hands laughed, and 
the negroes guffawed. But the Httle boy, brought 
back to duty, and, as he thought, to death and de- 



Eari.i5:st Re:coi.i.j:ctions. 



17 



struction, saw nothing in the world to be amused 
about. 

Well, asks the reader, where are the life symbols 
in this fifth recollection, and what prophetic teaching 
can be found in the circumstance? 

My reply is that I have found two most important 
lessons in the incident or happening of that morning. 

First, I never started to fly from duty, and was 
making for some wilderness of seclusion, loneliness 
and inactivity, but the Lord sent some of His servants, 
and always our Elder Brother, after me. Thus far 
they have always caught me before I got to the 
woods. 

Second, God has often made me take passage on 
the very thing I dreaded. He in His wonderful wis- 
dom and power, has caused persons and circumstances 
that I thought were set for my destruction, actually 
to bring me on in the way of spiritual life and relig- 
ious duty, and in the ripening and perfecting of 
character for the skies. 

There are situations and occurrences of life as 
terrifying to the human soul as a noisy steamboat to 
a little child. But God can make the dreaded and 
dreadful event land for us, take us aboard, so to 
speak, bear us on up the stream of years, and bring 
us safe and sound into the Holy City, where our Father 
has prepared us a home and mansion eternal in the 
heavens. 



i8 



Graphic Sc^nhs. 



Thank God for the Bible statement that "ALL 
THINGS work together for good to them that love 
God/'- 



CHAPTER II. 



Th^ Reward of Faith^uIv Waiting. 

The childhood and boyhood home of the writer 
had in front a large flower yard. A clump of cedars 
was in one corner, a row of arbor vitaes lined the 
sides of the garden, while the main and central part 
was filled with roses of every color and perfume. 
An arbor on the left was almost hidden as to its 
framework by the beautiful climbing plant and yellow 
flowers called the Cloth of Gold; violets bordered 
many of the walks and beds, while carnations, peonies, 
four-o'clocks., calacanthus, cape jasmine, crepe myrtle 
and many other plants made such a riot of color and 
combination of fragrance that the golden-winged but- 
terflies flitting through the shrubbery seemed to make 
the place their settled home. 

The portico of the house jutting into the flower 
yard was literally buried in woodbine and honey- 
suckle, while in the sweet, shadowy depths of the 
clambering vines the bees droned their song, and 
humming birds fluttered their dehcate wings through 
all the sunny hours of the day. 

The fence that inclosed this garden was unusual 
in its style and construction. A board panel two feet 

19 



20 



Gr,\phic Scenes. 



high formed the base. From this wall, "square white 
pickets four inches apart shot up to the height of 
four feet. The}' were kept steady by passing through 
two planks one above the other and separated by 
eighteen inches. Panels, posts and pickets vrere all 
painted a pure white, giving a most attractive appear- 
ance to the fence, while at the same time it was as 
substantial and strong as it was handsome. 

The white pickets projected about a foot above 
the top plank, making, as the reader will see, a most 
comfortable as well as safe perch and good outlook 
for a lad of five years, who was not allowed to leave 
home, but was anxious to see all he could of the 
world as it flowed before and beneath him on street 
and pavement in his immediate neighborhood. 

Here sitting on the top plank, with hands grasp- 
ing a picket on each side, and with a background of 
waving plants and nodding roses, the writer spent 
many happy hours studying life as it rattled and 
rushed along in the shape of even* kind of vehicle 
on the thoroughfare or walked and hurried by in the 
form of all kinds of pedestrians on the brick walks of 
the avenue. 

One afternoon I occupied the usual obsers-ator}', 
having just left the hands of the sen-ant maid, who 
had arrayed me in all the glories of a white suit, long 
curls falling to the shoulder, and polished low quarter 
shoes. 



Re^ward 0^ Faith^ui, Waiting. 21 



Among those who spoke graciously to me in pass- 
ing was a nice looking colored girl of eighteen or 
twenty. She had a white pitcher in her hand and 
was on her way to a neighboring dairy for milk. 

Stopping in front of me, she studied the childish 
figure on the lonely perch for several seconds very 
steadily, and then said: 

"'You are a mighty nice looking little boy; and 
to-morrow evening I am going to bring you a stick 
of molasses candy." 

With that she passed on ; but the promise remain- 
ied fixed and fast in the memory of the urchin on the 
[fence. 

Next afternoon at the same hour I went promptly 
to the tower of observation, so tO' speak, looking for 
the sweet fulfillment of yesterday's pledge. 

By and by the girl with the pitcher hove in sight. 
[When as she approached I cried eagerly: 

"Have you got the candy?" 

She had forgotten it. And said pleasantly that 
she would remember it next time. The third evening 
I was laying in wait for her, and the old question 
fell upon the woman's ear from the top of the fence : 

"Have you got my candy?" 

Lo ! her recollection had proved treacherous again, 
and with some little asperity in her voice and manner 
she answered : 

''No, I have not got your candy!" 



22 



"Graphic Sci:ne:s. 



The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh afternoons 
found the determined youngster in his accustomed 
place, while the same query, full of faith and expec- 
tancy, would ring out: ''Have you got my candy?" 

As well as I can recall this early incident, weeks 
passed in the fruitless effort to obtain the promised 
blessing. I have a dim memory of the summer sea- 
son going by, and the sober tints of autumn appear- 
ing in the flower garden as well as on the wooded 
hills near by; but still the lookout station was occu- 
pied and the appeal was regularly made each day. I 
doubt not that life began to be a burden and even 
wretched to the young servant maid. I can but think 
the little figure perched on the fence filled her with 
dismay when her eyes each afternoon fell upon it. 
Moreover, the streets were so arranged in that part 
of town that the girl had to pass our home to get to 
the dairy. So I unconsciously was the source of great 
trouble to her. I recall very plainly that some of her 
replies were quite snappish, and the former sentence 
of promise was never repeated. 

But it had been made once, and I held gravely, 
steadily and imperturbably on. The candy had been 
pledged and was mine by virtue of the promise. So 
I never failed to say "my candy." 

One afternoon from my watch tower on the pal- 
ings, I saw the woman coming and put the stereo- 
typed interrogatory, "Did you bring my candy?" 



Re:ward 01^ Faith^ui, Waiting. 23 



When, to my unspeakable gladness, she exclaimed : 

**Yes ! Here's your candy !" And, running her 
hand into the pitcher, she drew out a long stick of 
molasses candy that she had pulled a yellowish white, 
and held it out to me. Seizing it with a disengaged 
hand and placing one end of the elongated sweetness 
in the mouth, I began eating and, somewhat indis- 
tinctly mumbling at the same time: 

"Won't you promise to bring me some more?" 

Her instant reply, shot from her lips like a musket 
ball was, "That I wont!" and with a quick step left 
me and vanished around the comer. 

Jfj * ^ * * 

I have repeatedly recalled this scene of my child- 
hood, which not only suggests moral lessons, but is a 
parable in itself. 

One teaching is that the man who desires pardon 
and holiness should place himself in the Lord's way 
and get a promise from Him. 

With such a Bible as we have, this is not hard 
to do. So it is not long when putting ourselves in 
the Heaven-appointed course, the Savior meets us 
in the way, and the pledge is given. 

The next thing for us to do on hearing the prom- 
ise from the pulpit, or reading it in the Scripture, 
is to take the position of faith and expectancy and 
begin to ask for the blessing. 

"Lord, where is the fulfillment of the assurance you 



24 



Graphic ScE:N:es. 



made me? Where is the sweetness and gladness and 
fullness of Pentecost? Where is the candy?" 

The trouble with many is that they leave the fence 
too soon. They get too quickly discouraged over the 
empty pitcher days, and Heaven's apparent forget- 
fulness to redeem its covenant. 

The thing to do is to stay on the prayer pinnacle 
and faith outlook. Keep asking. Continue to hang 
on the Lord. 

What if Summer seems to depart, and the chill 
of Autumn days come on? God is faithful and can- 
not deny His Word. Keep entreating and asking, 
*'Where is my promised Pentecost? Where is the 
fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ?" 
And behold the hour will come when the Lord will 
suddenly appear with the promised blessing; and the 
soul of the faithfully praying, patiently waiting one 
will be baptized with the Holy Ghost, and find itself 
filled with the sweetness and gladness of the fullness 
of God. 

So when people tell me to-day that they tried 
and could not obtain the blessings of pardon and full 
salvation, I give some of them this page of my child's 
history and say: 

''You left the fence too soon. You did not wait 
long enough for the candy." 

The holiness movement is getting filled to-day with 
people who have never received the real Upper Room 



RWARD Faith ^uiv Waiting. 25 

experience. They seem to know nothing of the bap- 
tism with the Holy Ghost and fire and the death o£ 
the Old Man. They know nothing of the white stone 
given by Christ to the Overcomer in the church, with 
a new name written in the stone which no man 
knoweth saving he that receiveth it. They have a 
dry, mechanical profession, but are minus a sweet, 
burning, unctuous, glorious possession. 

In explanation, they say that the evangelist told 
them to take the blessing by faith and go on. My 
reply to all such is that the Saviour commands to 
the contrary, and that His words to the disciples were 
"'Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued 
with power from on high." "Wait for the promise 
of the Father, which (saith he) ye have heard of me. 
For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be 
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." 

Christ never said wait ten days, but tarry until the 
blessing comes, whether it takes ten, twenty or a 
hundred days. 

But lo ! many of the evangelists to-day call up the 
church members, ask them to bow a few minutes at 
the cushioned altar, request the preachers and lay- 
men to lead in prayer who have not the blessing them- 
selves, and when the wretched little farce is over, 
dismiss the seekers ( ?) to their seats with the assur- 
ance that the work has been done. Then the report 



26 



Graphic Sci:ne:s. 



is sent to some distant religious paper that one, two 
or three hundred have received their Pentecost! 

But where is the flame in the soul? The tongue 
of fire? The winelike joy? And the power of the 
Holy Ghost in them and on them? 

Even a complete consecration is not entire sancti* 
fication ! So what shall be said of an imperfect con- 
secration? And yet the human side of the matter is 
called the divine work, and a most defective seeking 
is misnomened a finding. 

The pledge of the young woman to me was not 
the candy itself. I believed the promise she made, but 
kept looking for the candy. I lived, so to speak, on the 
top of the fence until I got it. The promise was sweet, 
but the fulfillment was far sweeter. As well as I 
recall it, the candy tasted immeasurably better than 
the promise. The latter was splendid, of course, but 
it brought a lot of restless longing and lonely waiting 
with it ! But when the sugar composition arrived and 
suddenly filled the mouth, the feeling was entirely 
different, and the satisfaction experienced at the time 
of the reception was simply immense. 

The lesson is, do not leave the Upper Room too 
soon. And do not leave it without the blessing. The 
command is to tarry. The promise is that it shall 
come not many days hence. Do not leave Jerusalem 
v^ithout it, saying you have taken it by faith. Such 
faith is presumption, for it differs from Christ's 



I^^WARD Faith^uIv Waiting. 27 



directiong. And such faith often turns out to be 
nothing but laziness, the giving up of the active seek- 
ing for the blessing. 

Faith believes God's Word, and obeys God. Faith 
is full of works, according to James. And faith stays 
out the days until Pentecost is fully come and fills 
those days with prayer and expectancy for the bless- 
ing. 

In other words, do not leave, but stay on the 
fence until you get the candy. 



CHAPTER III. 



A RlVAI, AT SCHOOIv. 

At the age of seven I was sent to school. The 
schoolmaster, named Smur, was a hard looking, stiff, 
unbending kind of man and the severest pedagogue 
that ever held that position in our native town. I 
never knew him to smile, or exchange a kindly word 
with any of the scholars who came to the great brick 
building where he presided. 

I had been very tenderly raised at home with a 
loving mother and devoted elder sister, and so the 
first vision I had of Mr. Smurs' hard face, and the 
sight of a boy whipped on his bare legs with a cow- 
hide, until the blood ran down his limbs, fairly froze 
my blood with horror. I beheld fully a dozen lads 
castigated in one day, and as I saw them squirm and 
leap, and cry, I fully expected to be murdered in cold 
Iblood at no very distant day. 

Perhaps the frightened face with the terror- 
istricken eyes looking out from a mass of long brown 
tangled curls may have saved me, I do not know, only 
I escaped the dreaded flagellation. 

It was the fashion then to dress boys of seven 
years of age in white aprons ; one style reaching to 

28 



A RlVAt AT ScHooi;. 



29 



the knees, and the other coming only to the waist with 
a pretty border, edged with something Hke lace work. 
I abominated the long apron and delighted in the short 
one. 

One morning my sister was dressing me for school 
and was placing on me the garment I fairly detested. 
I pleaded with a swelling heart and tearful eyes for 
the other. 

Her reply was that she knew Mr. Smur would 
be pleased to see me in the long apron, when I promptly 
said, 

"I spoke to Mr. Smur about it, and he said he 
greatly preferred to have me wear the short apron." 

To this day I can recall the sudden concealment of 
my sister's face from view, while her body fairly 
shook with suppressed amusement. When she looked 
up, her eyes fairly streaming witK mirth, and face 
crimson with the effort not to laugh outright, I felt 
somewhat abashed, and decidedly convicted by con- 
science, but would not recede an inch from my state- 
ment of Mr. Smur's devotion to short aprons. 

It was certainly a most amusing and absurd con- 
nection I was trying to make between the grave, 
severe, reticent schoolmaster and the little garment 
that so filled my eye. The putting of such a speech 
in the mouth of such a man was beyond question 
exceedingly ridiculous, and as a fact simply incredible, 
although it did not so strike me that morning. 



30 



Graphic ScE:Ni:s. 



I have mentioned the occurence, to show as some 
would call it the marvellous imagination of a child of 
seven, but as others would more truly define and ex- 
plain, the presence of inbred sin with its amazing 
power and facility for downright, as well as highly 
ornamental lying on short notice, possessed by the 
so-called cherubs and little innocents of the family. 

I remember that this deliberate falsehood came 
from me without the slightest effort. And mind you, 
this falsifier was not allowed to play with "bad boys," 
lived in a sweet home with a large, beautiful flower 
yard surrounding three sides, had had his bath that 
morning, his hair curled and was being dressed by a 
lovely, loving, devoted sister. 

Truly inbred sin or the carnal mind is in children 
no matter whether they live on an avenue or back 
alley. One fruit of carnality is lying, and the doing 
so with ease and quickness. And the lies come forth 
like finished work. They are thrown off as from a 
practiced hand, and yet the fabricator may be in 
pinafores and knickerbockers. 

As I recall that long gone morning scene, I remem- 
ber the Bible statement about the sin nature which 
is so warmly denied by certain theologians of to-day, 
viz., that we are conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity; 
and go astray from the womb speaking lies ! 

* ;fc :4{ ;}{ * * 

I entered school at seven, a fluent reader and 



A RiVAI. AT ScHooi;. 



31 



correct speller, but strange to say, have no recollection 
of the person or persons through whom I had received 
these accomplishments'. Doubtless it was through the 
combined labors of my mother and a governess, 
although I cannot recall this as a fact. 

Nevertheless this proficiency obtained through the 
painstaking care of others, sent me to the head of my 
class in the first week. And this scholastic triumph 
caused one of the young belles of the town, the little 
daughter of a leading merchant, to transfer her admir- 
ation and favor from a tall, raw-boned, hard-featured 
boy three years my senior, to the recent arrival. 

The rejected was in no mood to accept such treat- 
ment and so after school gave me an unmerciful 
thrashing on the street. I did the best I could, stand- 
ing up for my personal rights, but my antagonist out- 
classed me in weight and I was whipped in body, but 
not in spirit. 

Almost five years followed of a kind of Punic war 
between us. The little belle was loyal, and for her 
sake I received about two thrashings a year on the 
average. 

My cause was just, and a strange kind of judg- 
ment befell my long-time foe. He ceased for some 
reason to grow, while I physically flourished and finally 
overtook him. Perhaps the remarkable massage treat- 
ment he had given my body for years assisted circu- 
lation and muscular hardening, but anyhow there came 



32 



Graphic Schne:s. 



one day a drawn conflict, and several weeks later the 
final battle was waged in the presence of the admired 

Lizzie M , and I had a complete victory over my 

opponent of years while she stood by most compla- 
cently looking on. And so the First Punic War 
ended. 

Now for the conclusion. Neither one of us ever 
obtained the hand of Lizzie in marriage. When eigh- 
teen she visited New Orleans with her rare personal 
attractions and captured a rich cotton merchant in . 
the Crescent City. 

And so Ulysses, the boy's name, and myself had 
pummelled each other for five long years all for 
nothing. 

We became great friends' after that, but were 
severely silent on the subject of the marriage in New 
Orleans, of a girl named Lizzie M , and of a cer- 
tain boyish Punic war we had carried on for years in 
vain. 

The solemn and affecting teaching from this piece 
of Hfe history must be evident to many, and applied 
easily to a number of situations in life. 

I have known persons struggle long and frantically 
for fortune and some one else stepped in and rolled 
up the coveted wealth. 

I have beheld men strive and fight with each other 
for fame and office, and some "dark horse" would 



A RivAt AT School. 



33 



succeed where they failed. And all the squabbling 
had been for naught. 

I have known preachers wrangling for the office 
of a bishop, and some one else got elected instead of 
themselves. They lost both the office and their relig- 
ious experience. 

Especially does the life lesson apply to the hopeless 
conflict and struggle going on in the case of millions 
for the love, favor, smiles and hand of this world. 
She seems to receive the attention of many, but finally 
rejects them all. She gives neither her hand or heart 
to any, but only a burial lot to the whole crowd in one 
of her cemeteries. 

In the morning of the Resurrection, all of these 
defeated and rejected aspirants will arise from the 
dust only to behold the World they so worshipped, 
wedded to another and passing away from their view 
forever. 

There was no hope for them from the beginning. 
She had been promised from her birth to the "Saints." 
*'The earth is the Lord's". And so clad in the glory 
of God and filled with righteousness she is beheld 
by her old-time suitors, the multitudes of the lost, 
now belonging to Christ and the followers of the Son 
of God, sweeping away from their gaze and presence 
for all eternity. 

She seems to have forgotten them. And yet, how 



34 



Graphic Sc^ne:s. 



they fought and pummelled each other, bit, hit and 
hurt one another to win the terrestrial beauty. 

And lo ! not one of them received the prize. This 
planet is not for the Devil's crowd. ''For evil doers 
shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, 
they shall inherit the earth." 



CHAPTER IV. 



An Unde;se:rve:d Whipping. 

I can recall only several castigations given me by 
my mother in the days of my early boyhood. Doubt- 
less I deserved these peach-switch ministrations, and 
can remember that I always felt religious for days 
afterward and walked around with a meek and quiet 
spirit. 

But there was one tanning I got with a cowhide 
that was perfectly unmerited. It proved to be a 
maternal mistake, frankly and tenderly acknowledged 
afterwards, but the explanation failed to take away 
the marks and the burning sensation of the instrument 
of correction. 

I had a brother four years older than myself who 
was always playing pranks, getting into mischief and 
bringing upon himself the rod of discipline. One day 
on account of some outrageous piece of conduct on his 
part, our mother told him she would visit him in his 
bedroom after he had retired. 

My brother well understood what this meant, and 
as I slept with him, he asked me on retiring, if I 
would like to sleep on the outside, and not next to 
the wall that night. 

35 



36 



Graphic Sc^ne:s. 



I cordially thanked him, and from this unexpected 
piece of goodness shown to me, began to think my 
brother would not live long and was getting ready to 
go to Heaven. 

I had often wished to sleep as I called it, on the 
outside, and now snugly fixed in this coveted position 
soon sank into slumber. 

But later on I dreamed that something of a painful 
nature was happening, that a storm of some kind 
was striking the house, especially my part of it. With 
a clearer consciousness from a good open-eyed awak- 
ening I found that I was receiving a severe castiga- 
tion from some one in the night, and my only protec- 
tion was a thin linen sheet. 

I could not remember what I had done to receive 
such a nocturnal flagellation, but accepted it on the 
ground that I deserved it on general principles, that 
if I could not recall just at the moment some particular 
offense, yet my mother might have found out things 
that I had forgotten, and I was receiving my just 
deserts. 

But as the strokes were severe I had finally to 
burst forth in a spell of bitter sobbing and weeping. 
Whereupon there was a quick cessation of the lashes, 
and my mother in an anxious tone cried out: "Is 
that you, Beverly?" And I, in smothered accents, 
told her that what was left of me answered to that 
name. 



An Unde^s^rvkd Whipping. 37 



Then came the quick query : "Where is that boy, 
Spence ?" 

But Spence had already slipped under the bed, 
and out of the door, and was gone ! 

This incident of boyhood's life serves the purpose 
of showing up several interesting facts. 

One is the undeserved censure, abuse and general 
suffering some people receive in this world. 

I know of a boy who was whipped severely by his 
teacher for an offense he had not committed, and when 
he got home was castigated still more severely by 
his father for having committed the same imaginary 
misdeed. 

All this is but a faint type indeed of the suffering 
of men and women who pass through life criticized, 
judged and harshly dealt with for things which they 
had not said, and did not dream of doing. 

This is' a world where people are far more apt to 
obtain injustice from the hands of men than justice. 
Few earthly critics, judges and executioners know the 
full case of the victim they cut, lash and maltreat. 
Sometimes the injured one is not asked to explain, 
sometimes the wronged party will not trouble himself 
in his own self-vindication. 

Anyhow there is much wrong doing committed in 
life that is not usually called by that name. Preachers 
who are hated for their faithfulness, evangelists who 
are misrepresented and denounced for utterances and 



38 



Graphic Scdn^s. 



actions of which they are innocent, statesmen accused 
of cowardice and disloyalty, parents talked against by 
their children, all alike know the truth and sadness as 
well, of the above statement. 

Many have read of the occurrence in the Pullman 
sleeper, where a baby was crying and the father was 
doing his best but in vain to quiet the sobbing infant. 
Finally a man cried out, "Can't you stop the scream- 
ing of that child and let us get some rest?" When 
the father replied in a subdued, sorrow-stricken tone : 
"His mother, sir, is in the baggage car ahead in 
her coffin, and I am doing the best I can to quiet him." 

It is said that a dozen men were instantly on 
their feet offering to help the bereaved person whom 
they had so misunderstood and unkindly condemned. 

I doubt not that just as swift a change of senti- 
ment and opinion would take place, and just as ready 
an extension of sympathy and helping hands would 
be seen on the part of fault-finding, criticizing men 
towards their tongue victims if they only knew the 
facts of the case, the real history of the sad face and 
burdened life. 

This can be fairly seen from what is beheld after 
death of members of the family, and the burial of 
citizens of the community. An abundance of light 
seems suddenly thrown on the finished existence. A 
spirit of justice as well as conscience straightway, 
awakens. And men say with regretful lips we mis- 



Und^se:rv^d Whipping. z7 

understood the case, the man was a true man. While 
in the household the feeling is that they did not appre- 
ciate the fairest flower in the garden until Death 
plucked it from their midst, and bore it to a world 
where its beauty and value would be recognized. 

A second lesson from this life incident is that the 
earnestly desired and coveted position in life is not 
always the best place for us. 

Poor, restless, disgruntled humanity, always wants 
the front side, the first row of seats on the platform, 
the best position in the auditorium, and the highest 
rank in society, state and church. Like the writer, 
it wants to sleep on the outside. 

I have seen many scheme, sigh, plan and struggle 
for these front places. Some get them. But the 
whipping is certain to come. 

The leader is punished for the faults of his fel- 
lows. The man who is at the head of something will 
discover that he has anything but a pleasant time. 
Instead of a shower of roses falling upon him, there 
will be slaps, blows and lashes of criticism, fault-find- 
ing and denunciation; and a regular pommelling of 
individuals who want the position, office and honor 
that he has. 

Truly the front place is a perilous one. All such, 
occupants' are likely to be waked up suddenly at any 
hour with a perfect downpour of verbal whips and 
cowhides. 



40 



Graphic Sce:ni:s. 



A third lesson is that there are individuals in this 
world who designedly place others where they know 
that trouble is certain to come upon them. 

This distressing fact so covers the field of tempta- 
tion, the using of human victims' to shelter self in 
some way, that the space of this chapter will not allow 
room for development of the thought. 

I doubt not that hundreds of our readers will un- 
derstand this point without any elucidation. 

A fourth lesson is that when trial and trouble 
comes upon the victim, the rule with the plotter then 
is to vanish. 

Once when a member of the St. Louis Conference, 
a preacher of that body drew up a strong, outspoken 
resolution against a crying evil of the day. His own 
name was signed to the unpopular paper, and then 
he came to me and requested my signature. I could 
not refuse, although I felt there was a wiser, better 
course than the one he was pursuing. 

As the time drew near according to an order of 
the Conference when all such papers should be con- 
sidered, I observed the restlessness of the brother and 
just a minute before the call, looked in his direction 
and saw his seat was empty. Nor did he appear until 
the discussion was all over. 

I had not studied the subject, nor prepared for the 
debate as I should have done if I had been the drawer 



An UNDi:s]eRVED Whipping. 



41 



up of the paper. So I was at a decided disadvantage 
in the speeches which followed. 

As my name came next on the resolution, and the 
framer having fled, I was left to defend the document 
the best I could in the midst of a furious opposition. 

Our long-headed friend who was under some kind 
of a promise to present the resolution, foresaw clearly 
the bitter fight which would ensue, determined to get 
some one else to suffer in his place, persuaded me to 
sign the paper with him, and then fled incontinently 
at the first sign of the approaching battle. 

In other words, the incident of my boyhood was 
repeated; my Conference brother got me to sleep on 
the outside, and when the whip descended, he slipped, 
so to speak, under the bed, and out of the door, leaving 
his victim to take the thrashing he had so adroitly 
escaped. 

On the like principle there are people who divert 
suspicion and talk from themselves by throwing blame 
on others. 

No wonder such beings never want to meet again 
face to face, people whom they have thus injured. 

A final lesson from the life incident is that a double 
consolation is the portion of all those who are thus 
mistreated and illtreated. 

First, that while we are innocent of the deed for 
which we are made unjustly to suffer, yet there has 
been so much lack, and unworthiness on other lines, 



42 



Graphic Sce^nes. 



that we can take the whipping on general principles 
so that after all it is a good thing for us. 

A second consolation is that God will overrule it 
all, and bring a great blessing to our souls out of the 
gross injustice and wrong done us. 

I recall that my mother fairly loaded me down with 
beautiful maternal attentions, made me a lot of pres- 
ents, and gave me the time of my life for quite awhile, 
because of the wrong treatment and undeserved pun- 
ishment I had received. 

David had the same idea in mind when Shimei 
was cursing and throwing stones at him. One of his 
generals said to the exiled king, let me take the dog's 
head off. But David said, No, that God would requite 
him a blessing for it all. 

I have never known it to fail, that when our aud- 
iences have verbally stoned us for faithful preaching, 
God invariably blessed our souls to overflowmg. 

And when wrong has come from the tongues, hands 
and conduct of men, without exception greater bless- 
ings, sweeter communion and peculiarly rich honors 
and compensations would come at once from the divine 
hand to the afflicted heart, saddened spirit, and deeply 
injured life. 

Truly through all ages God's people have been 
inspired to look up through every conceivable kind of 
mistreatment and say as David did, with perfect con- 
fidence and Heaven-born assurance, the Lord will 



An Und^s^rv^p Whipping. 43 



requite us a blessing for every curse that is uttered, 
and for every stone that in human or Satanic hate 
may be thrown at and cast upon us. 



CHAPTER V. 



Things Not What They SttM. 

When I had reached the mature age of nine years, 
I was made to undergo many heart pangs and morti- 
fications in not being old enough to enter into the 
pleasures and pastimes of brothers, sisters, cousins 
and friends, male and female, of the family who had 
arrived at, to me, the wonderfully advanced period 
known as sixteen, eighteen and twenty summers, not 
to say anything about the winters. 

I was told that I was too small to go on fishing 
excursions, as if I was to blame for my age and size, 
and was promptly ruled out with no minority report 
allowed, when pleading that I might be permitted to 
form one of a party going of¥ on a camp hunt and 
deer drive. Several times I had been accorded the 
privilege of accompanying a gentleman down the lake 
bank, squirrel hunting, and where my responsible duty 
was to scare the red, gray or black beauty around to 
the other side of the tree for the huntsman to shoot. 
Somehow this failed to thrill and satisfy. Still it was 
all that one who had the misfortune of being nine 
years old could hope for in this present world, crowded 

44 



Things Not What TutY S^tM. 45 



with towering beings of from five to six feet high, 
and ranging in years from sixteen upward. 

Among the social happenings of that time, and an 
enjoyment that was especiaUy indulged in one year by 
our household and family connection, was the giving 
of what was called ''parties." The main substance 
of the affair was conversation, songs, games, musical 
instruments, the ubiquitous volin, a dance, and all 
terminating with a big supper given somewhere about 
midnight or one o'clock. The guests ranged in num- 
ber from forty to sixty, and were composed of young 
people with a sprinkling of elderly friends and rela- 
tives to keep things in order, and give it the right tone. 

When one of these social occurrences took place 
in the country, it added much to the pleasure of the 
attendants or ''company," as they were called, and 
necessitated a perfect cavalcade of buggies, with here 
and there a sedate old family carriage to carry the 
merry, laughing, thoughtless' occupants within. 

It happened in the year already mentioned, that 
there was an unusual number of these festal gather- 
ings. And quite a majority were taking place in old 
Southern homes, that famous for hospitality and good 
cheer, were from six to twelve miles distant from 
town. So my boyish heart was made to ache and 
swell and all but break as I saw such streams of 
human happiness as I fancied flowing all about me, 



46 



Graphic Sce:ne:s. 



and yet debarred by a mere almanac feature from 
swimming in the current. 

A line of wood-crowned hiLls nearly a mile away 
made the horizon boundary line on the east of the 
town. The big white highway climbed this lofty 
slope and disappeared in what appeared to me fascin- 
ating and fairy regions beyond. Over there the sun 
rose and shone, but on my side it only faintly glim- 
mered, and set ; especially the party days. 

As the line of vehicles, filled with laughing groupg, ' 
among whom I could see a brother and sister and 
almost a score of cousins ; as this procession passed 
over and beyond the hill, it seemed a caravan of puresfi 
dehght for the party of the first part, but to the party 
of the second part, viz., the little boy leaning witli 
grieved eyes and trembling lips peering through the 
pickets of his mother's back gate, that same cavalcade 
of joy, performed all the function of a funeral, and 
bore away the dead body of his hopes', and buried all 
his joy somewhere on the other side of that wonderful 
hill. 

I had just witnessed the departure of one of these 
trains of pleasure, each buggy first making and then 
disappearing in its own little cloud of fascinating dust ; 
and I with brimming eyes was turning away into the 
back yard with the thought that there was nothing in 
the world left to live for ; when suddenly an old 
lumbering family carriage belonging to a well-to-do 



Things Not What Th^y SttM. 47 



kinswoman rolled up to the front door. This lady 
was on her way to the party, to partly chaperone and 
likewise tO' enjoy herself. 

As a lad I happened to enjoy the favor of this kind 
but stately aunt, and to my delight I was offered the 
vacant seat in the household chariot, with the proviso 
of my mother's consent, and my own individual prom- 
ise that I would mind everybody, get in nobody's way, 
be ever so good, etc., etc. 

All this, and even more, I gladly promised. The 
dream of my life was about to become a reality. The 
panting hope and desire of months and even years 
were about to be fulfilled. I was to go beyond those 
hills which skirted the town and that kept wistful, 
heartsick lads at home ! I was going to have a long 
ride in a carriage! And I was going to a party! 
Here was joy indeed. The thing called Happiness^ 
had been captured, was tied and fastened down just 
over the 'hill yonder, and was patiently waiting for 
me to come, mount, and fly away on its obedient back. 
I was ready. I had lived for this hour. And now it 
had come. It was a golden one. Yes, pure gold. 
The problem of a boy's life had been settled. It was 
not going to school that was needed, but to ride in a 
carriage and attend a party. Why were the old people 
so slow in seeing this plain and beautiful solution of 
a vexed question. 

The social gathering referred to was at the home 



48 



Graphic ScknDS. 



of another aunt of mine, and twelve miles away. 
The carriage in which the young hopeful of this sketch 
took the journey was hoisted on some old-fashioned 
leather springs, so that the vehicle had the rocking 
motion of a boat at sea. As a consequence I rolled 
around inside the swaying chariot, and breathing a 
heated and confined atmosphere laden with a smell 
of old leather, became dreadfully sick, and in the last 
six miles could scarcely hold up my head. 

Even before I had reached the journey's end, the 
affair did not seem so golden, and was taking on the 
appearance of gilt. 

The house was reached an hour after nightfall. 
The windows were twinkling with many lights, guests 
had arrived, others were driving up like ourselves, and 
servants were rushing about in every direction. 

The nausea soon disappeared after leaving the 
cause of it, and streaks of gold threaded the gilt, with 
reviving animation and expectation, in the^ breast of 
the lad. But if the sickness was gone, a great empti- 
ness was reahzed by the supperless child, and down 
went my heart again when I was told by the family 
servants that there had been no regular family supper 
that night, and would be none, everything being sacri- 
ficed, and everybody waiting for the banquet at mid- 
night. 

It is true that there was an abundance of gay 
company; but they were all "grown up" people, and 



Things Not What Th^y Se^m. 49 



took no notice of the hungry lad. And it is true 
there was music almost without end, from piano, flute 
and violins ; but no kind of melody will fill and satisfy 
an empty stomach, especially if that piece of physical 
economy belongs to a healthy boy of nine years. 

By this time all the streaks of gold had disappeared 
again, and the gilt itself had become nothing but 
brass. 

It would be hard to describe my increasing weari- 
ness and wretchedness as the time dragged by. 1 
became dizzy watching through open doors and win- 
dows the flying forms of the dancers. I was utterly 
wearied listening to the clatter of tongues in conver- 
sation and the bursts of laughter where I had no part 
or lot in the matter. I became sleepy when I entered 
the brightly lighted rooms, and chilled when I 
retreated to the porch. I was fagged out completely 
by ten o'clock, and sought the library that I might 
find a sofa or divan on which to stretch and rest 
myself. But the apartment was filled with elderly 
people who had possessed themselves of everything 
sittable and were absorbed in a kind of conversational 
buzzing as endless as it was joyless to the worn out 
stripling. 

The piece of brass had now become a lump of 
lead! 

Leaving the Library Reservation that had been 
filled with a rush of Homesteaders, I went out weak 



Graphic Scenes. 



and weary, to find a chair. But all articles of furni- 
ture had been moved out of the rooms to make space 
for the dancers, and even the settees on the front and 
back verandas had been spirited away somewhere to 
make room for the promenaders. 

At this time in my wanderings about, I essayed to 
go into the great dining room, whose portals were 
most mysteriously kept closed. As I opened one of 
the doors, I saw the long central table and side tables 
as well, loaded down with roasted fowls, baked meats, 
salads of every kind, frosted cakes, quivering gela- 
tines, island float, whipped creams, and fruits and 
flowers of every variety. 

A servant told me as he reclosed the door in my 
face that supper would be announced at one o'clock. 
It was then half-past ten. 

At eleven my hunger pangs became so great that 
I returned to the dining room door, and was met by 
a cousin, a youth of sixteen, who came out of the 
guarded apartment with part of a raspberry tart in 
his hand, the other portion being in his mouth. Heart- 
sick and almost voiceless I told the youth that I was 
very hungry, and would like something to eat. My 
cousin replied as he placed the rest of the tart in his' 
mouth, and wiped his hands cheerfully on his handker- 
chief, that "supper would be ready by one o'clock, and 
it would never do to take anything off the table now, 
it would spoil the looks of things," etc., etc. 



Things Not What Thi^y SttM. 51 



In walking away, I examined the golden blessing 
of the morning, and found it had not only backslidden 
into ordinary gilt, degenerated into brass, and passed 
into the leaden stage, but it had resolved itself into 
a form wonderfully like a quinine pill. And the pill 
was lodged in the throat. And it had no jelly cover- 
ing or sugar-coat. It was bitter through and through. 

Yet the saddest feature of the case has yet to 
be related. Hungry, sleepy, head-aching, leg-weary, 
homesick and heartsick, unable to find a lounge or 
chair that one could occupy, I crept into a shadowy 
corner of the porch, where, leaning against a honey- 
suckle frame, I listened to the music, laughter and 
tread of feet in the crowded rooms, and shed bitter 
tears all to myself in the dark. 

Little by little, exhausted, grieving, I sank towards 
the floor, until at last I was curled up sound asleep 
under the clambering vines that stirred with fragrant 
breath above my unconscious and dreamless head. 

Finally cramped with the position, and chilled 
through and through with the night air, I awoke with 
a start. I feared I had overslept myself. But the 
violins were still going, and the tread and shuffle of 
feet were sounding just the same. With hunger 
pangs that were simply unendurable, I staggered to 
my feet, walked to the dining room, and gazed in. 
And lo ! and behold ! supper was over ! The room 
looked like a battle and a cyclone had passed over and 



52 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



through it. With the exception of some damaged 
garlands and empty plates the place was bare. The 
sound of dishes being washed could be heard in the 
distant kitchen, while over twenty or thirty negro ser- 
vants out there were making merry over the fragments 
and remains of the banquet that had been given to 
them. I had slept four hours! 

The golden blessing of the morning had gone 
through the various stages of gilt, brass, lead and 
quinine; and now at this stage of proceedings had 
become a sickening dose of ipecac. 

There is no need to retrace minutely this piece of 
actual history to make explanation and application in 
spiritual things. The sketch is a self-evident proposi- 
tion. It is a piece of most familiar biography to every 
one who has believed the false promises of sin, fol- 
lowed the desires of his own ignorant heart, and gone 
to the world and into evil, in the search after real 
pleasure and solid happiness. 

What a long list of disappointments is sure to fol- 
low. What a vain waiting at open doors and windows 
for the form of peace and satisfaction to appear. 
What a chill in the gallery, and what stifling heat in 
the rooms. How tired one gets of the same old tramp 
and procession; the same old empty conversations; 
the laughter that has not a single ring of true joy and 



Things Not What Th^y Se^^m. 53 



happiness about it, in spite of its loudness and 
frequency. 

A fearful spirit hunger goes with the disappointed 
soul. There is no rest to be found. Doors are shut 
in the face. One is bidden to stand aside and wait. 
Selfishness reigns. The crowd overlooks, jostles, 
pushes aside, and forgets. The body grows weary, 
the head aches, the heart is heavy, and the spirit dis- 
couraged. The band plays on, but somebody out on 
the porch is chilled to the soul, and wonders where the 
joy or satisfaction comes in, and when it will appear. 

He is finally told by those who look like they ought 
to know, that it is to be found in certain hours and 
on certain tables. After more heart-breaking and 
exhausting waiting, he makes a rush for that peculiar- 
hour and table — and lo! nothing is there! If ever 
there was anything, it is all gone now. 

The staircase trod by the deluded being did not 
ascend but descended. As he reaches the bottom and 
looks up, he names the steps. They are Gold, Gilt, 
Brass, Lead, Quinine and Ipecac. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Th^ PRi^Si^NT A Pony. 

The writer had a sister who was bright, good- 
looking and attractive in her ways, and so had a num- 
ber of admirers. The fact that in those ante-bellum 
days the family possessed land, a town residence and 
a lot of slaves did not have a tendency to diminish the 
number and ardor of the suitors. 

Prominent among these gentlemen was a physician 
whom I will call Dr. Direct, and a Southern cotton 
planter whose title shall be Mr. Policy. 

The doctor, as the name would indicate, never 
lost time winning the favor of the family, but went 
steadily and continually for the affections of my sister. 
He was not discourteous at all to the rest, but it was 
evident to all that it was my sister he was after and 
not the family. 

Mr. Policy pursued another course altogether 
different, and endeavored to ingratiate him.self with 
the whole household, and so having^ them all on his 
side would carry my sister by the force of an over- 
whelming majority vote. 

As I was the favorite little brother of this sister, 
Mr. Policy treated me to greater kindnesses and favors 

54 



Thj) Pr^s^nt a Pony. 



55 



than he did the woman he loved. He fairly loaded 
me down with presents and gifts of all kinds. 
He used to tell me charming stories on the 
portico while Dr. Direct was in the parlor losing no 
time on side issues and unimportant provinces like 
little brothers, but using all his strength for the cap- 
ture of the lovely citadel before him. 

The culminating, and as it proved the last present 
made me by Mr. Policy, was a beautiful clay-bank 
pony named Gillie. As it was brought to the fronfi 
gate, with a shining little saddle and bridle, while a 
servant delivered a note saying that it was all for the 
writer, I can never forget the transport that filled me. 
I patted the glossy neck of the pony, and had I 
possessed a thousand sisters I am confident in my 
enthusiasm and gratitude I would most cheerfulljij 
have married them all to men like Mr. Policy and felt 
they would have done well, lived long and died hap- 
pily. Of course that would also have meant a thou- 
sand ponies for me. 

Dr. Direct did not have the money Mr. Policy 
possessed, but he owned a pair of dark expressive 
eyes, was deeply in love and made up in attentions 
to the sister what he lacked in handsome little horses 
for the young brother, and so went on his way 
apparently unmoved by the Gillie episode. 

As the public schoolhouse was located in the cen- 
ter of the town where we lived, and our home was in 



56 



Graphic Sce:ne:s. 



the suburbs, the gift of Gillie at once impressed a 
certain head of the family most agreeably that a happy 
solution of the long walk to school by the two boys 
of the family, my brother, aged fourteen, and myself, 
still younger, had been beautifully and tastefully and 
materially found. That problem solution was Gillie. 

So Mr. Policy was fairly beamed on by the afore- 
said head of the family and indeed all the household, 
except my sister. 

The very next morning Gillie with the glistening 
new saddle was brought around after breakfast. The 
family were all gathered with pleased smiles on a side 
porch to see the stylish and happy departure of the 
two exultant lads who were hoisted up by the negro 
hostler, the older one on the saddle and the younger 
one on a pillion behind the saddle. 

All would have gone well doubtless, and who can 
tell but Gillie might have won the day in the marriage 
relation referred to. But how many things after all 
depends on mere accidents. 

My brother, grasping the reins in his hands, gave 
a loud cheerful cluck, and at the same time jabbed 
his heel in Gillie's tender flank. Whereupon our 
young steed, not accustomed to such rude treatment, 
at once in some remarkable yet unmistakable manner 
shot my brother up in mid-air, and with another sim- 
ilar lightning-like movement sent me up after him; 



iTh^ Pr^s^ni^ 0^ A Pony. 



and then quietly went to browsing grass by the side of 
the flower yard fence as if nothing had happened. 

My brother and I both landed on the grass fear- 
fully frightened, but unhurt, amid the shrieks of the 
female members of the family on the portico. 

To this day I can recall their blanched faces and 
piercing cries. They had gathered to witness our 
triumphant departure to school, and beheld instead a 
sudden ascension in the skies followed by a fall as 
sudden, which they feared was fatal. 

Gillie was led in disgrace to the stable, and instead 
of proving a help to Mr. Policy, operated most natur- 
ally against his cause as he had nearly proved the 
death of the favorite little brother not to mention the 
older one. 

Meanwhile in spite of Mr. Policy's protests and 
affirmations as to Gillie's gentleness, and that he 
simply did not like a heel thrust into his flanks ; said 
young steed was left severely alone, everyone being 
afraid to ride him. And so the young horse being 
heahhy and with a good appetite, proceeded as stable 
men say, to eat his head off. 

One day Probe, the hostler, appeared at the back 
door of the family mansion and said to a certain head 
of the family, that Gillie had eaten another sack of 
oats and there must be some more provender ordered 
for him; when this same head of the family in a 



58 



Graphic Sci:ne:s. 



momentary fit of irritation over the expense of an 
unused horse, cried out: 

"I wish that Gillie was down Mr. Policy's throat/' 
Now it always happens in the family history that 
certain youngsters are around the very time they 
should not be; and with eyes like saucers and ears 
like little pitchers it is wonderful what they see and 
hear. 

I happened to be around; heard the speech; and 
being devoted to Mr. Policy, was greatly grieved, and 
marvelled how such an utterance could be made rela- 
tive to one who had been so kind to me even to the 
giving of Gillie. 

The problem was too great, and the burden too 
heavy for the child's heart, and so that very evening 
when Mr. Policy called, taking his usual seat on the 
veranda, while Dr. Direct was in the parlor, he drew 
me to his side and began his usual entertaining con- 
versation. 

But my spirit was too troubled to enjoy the badin- 
age and humorous talk, and so I finally said: 

"What do you think So and So said this afternoon 
about you ?" 

Immediately the man's eyes sparkled, thinking that 
if a head of the household had been speaking about 
him it meant naturally much in his favor ; so he replied 
eagerly : 
"What was it?" 



The: Pr^siJnt oi? a Pony. 



59 



"They said/' I answered in a grieved, indignant 
tone, "that they wished Gillie was down your throat." 

To this hour I have a vivid memory of the 
shocked and pained look on Mr. Policy's face as he 
sat in the twilight on the porch while voices, laughter 
and music were floating out from the parlor windows. 

It has always been a mystery to me how my unfor- 
tunate speech on the porch came to be known. It 
must have been by "wireless," or I was overhead. I 
cannot tell, for I do not understand it myself. But I 
do know that in less than five minutes I was receiving 
a peach-switch dressing down in the bath room at the 
end of the back gallery. Moreover, I was bidden to 
go straight back to Mr. Policy and tell him that the 
aforesaid party had not said what I had repeated. 

My rendering of this corrected address was unfor- 
tunate, but perfectly natural as a child. With tears 
streaming and knuckles in my eyes, I sobbed, standing 
on the fateful porch again: "Mr. Policy, they told 
me to tell you that they never said what I told you." 

Well, it is all over now. Dr. Direct married my 
sister. Mr. PoHcy, determining to be in the family, 
took for his wife a pretty black-eyed cousin of ours 
who led him a lively dance clear up to the portals of 
the tomb. Gillie was sold and the money placed to 
my credit in the town bank. One day I went down 
"with a gentleman friend and got it. It was paid to 
me in a roll of silver and gold. .On returning home a 



6o 



Graphic Sce;ne:s. 



member of the family borrowed it; and this was the 
last I ever saw of the same gold and silver, the price 
of my little clay-bank pony. 

And now to the question what lessons do I propose 
to draw from this life page of my boyhood, I would 
answer : 

First, the best and quickest way to accomplish a 
desirable end is to go at the matter personally, immedi- 
ately and continuously. 

Dr. Direct gives us this most excellent teaching; 
and while Mr. Policy took a roundabout route, and 
lost time with intermediate personages, he himself 
went directly for my sister's heart and hand and won. 

When I see Roman Catholics to-day losing time 
with the Virgin Mary and the saints, instead of wait- 
ing directly and personally on Christ, I say here is 
Mr. Policy's blunder over again. 

Still, again, when I behold a lot of Protestant 
evangelical Christians giving the time and attention 
to some pulpit star or platform light, instead of going 
directly to the Son of God for the light, grace and 
blessing, which He alone can bestow, I say behold the 
blunder of Mr. Policy performed over again in the 
doctrinal and ecclesiastical realm. 

Verily, if one-hundredth part of the time devoted 
by a lot of religious people to running around to. 
different meetings to hear certain long-haired men and 
short-haired women air their views would be spent 



Thi: Pre:se:nt o:^ a Pony. 6i 



in humble, earnest prayer at the feet o£ the Son of 
God, the mystery of the Up'per Room experience 
would be a secret no longer, and purified in heart 
and filled with the Holy Ghost, they would be mighty 
under God in the pulling down of strongholds and 
spreading full salvation everywhere among the chil- 
dren of men. 

Another lesson from my boyhood's history is that 
a lot of people in the name of religion are giving pres- 
ents to the wrong person. 

There are numbers of individuals who seem to be 
trying to win the favor of Heaven and a place in 
God's family by certain gifts to the pubHc or to some 
ecclesiasticism. 

Christ is a person, and wants our individual and 
personal love and devotion. He is also omniscient 
and is not deceived when he sees men delighting not 
in, and living not in, His presence, yet trying to pur- 
chase salvation by a gift to some church, community, 
college or hospital. 

These gifts have their part in the Christian econ- 
omy, but cannot take the place of personal love, union 
and communion with the Son of God. 

What astounding revelations the Day of Judg- 
ment holds for multiplied thousands of such so-called 
gifts to Christ. It will be found that they were not 
for the Saviour, anyhow, but some were wrenched 
out by approaching death and some extorted by an 



62 



Graphic Sci:n^s. 



agonized conscience, and some were really cases of 
restitution, and some to disarm the wrath of God, 
and perhaps not one in a thousand sprang from per- 
sonal affection for the Redeemer. 

Still another lesson from that early scene of boy- 
hood is that some gifts that may be made us or 
come into our lives can prove very dangerous and 
even disastrous. 

Just as Gillie landed my brother and self head- 
over-heels on the ground amid loud lamentation from 
the porch as well as on the street, so we have seen 
how varied and perilous things called gifts bring a 
lot of people into a world of trouble. 

The Bible says that a gift bringeth a snare. And 
so we have beheld Gillie brought out to a pastor in the 
form of a gold watch, broadcloth suit, or trip to 
Europe by his rich members, and Gillie threw the 
man of God into the dust. The prostrate being became 
an earthly sycophant, a boot-licker of the rich, a 
crawler on the ground ever after. Look out foi: , 
Gillie! :( 

We have observed Gillie in the form of Oratory. 
It was a great gift, indeed, and Gillie fairly shone 
with his resplendent caparisons. But we saw the 
same Gillie throw the preacher clear out of the 
Gospel into lectures. Masonic addresses and FourtK 
of July speeches, and finally landed the rider into 



The PrEsi:nt 0^ a Pony. 



63 



backsliding and a backslider's Hell. Look out for 
Gillie! 

We have seen Gillie in a Blarneying Tongue, in 
Promises o£ Financial Help, in Smooth Manners, 
in a Honeyed Smile, in Good Looks, in a Confiding 
Manner and many other attractive, captivating and 
bewildering forms. But no matter how he came, we 
have never failed to observe that Gillie always throws 
his rider. 

So I say in all earnestness to those who read these' 
lines, and I repeat it, and I repeat it still again — "Look 
out for Gillie." 



CHAPTER VII. 



Si^^KiNG Happine:ss Through Pi^aying Hookey. 

When I was a lad of ten years of age I had an 
experience with some schoolmates on the line of 
transgression which has been an oft recurring mem- 
ory with me ever since. It was a kind of parable in 
itself and most powerfully illustrated and proved the 
utter inability of disobedience to produce happiness. 

These four schoolmates, all of them several years 
older than myself, offered to show me the way of 
joy and happiness. In common with the rest of the 
human family, I craved the experience they so glow- 
ingly painted to me. I wanted to have a great time, 
a splendid time, a real happy, jolly time. So when 
they expressed their willingness to reveal the path 
and lead me into the felicity which they said awaited 
me, I after some misgivings and anxieties consented 
to be initiated. 

In this instance the happiness was to come from 
'Tlaying Hookey," the words used in those days for 
being a Truant from school. 

I was already getting a lot of real enjoyment 
from school studies and triumphs, but these boys 

64 



Playing Hookby. 



6S 



told me that the pleasure of going to school was not 
worthy to be compared a moment with the joy of not 
going. That we would leave our several homes with 
1x)oks and satchels, but instead of journeying to the 
domicile of learning presided over by a strict teacher 
and there expending hours of mental toil, we would 
arrive in another part of town and spend all the 
morning and afternoon in having one of the times 
of our lives in doing nothing but play, and having 
fun by the cart and wagon load. 

The place of resort which was to be the hall of 
light, festivity and gladsomeness was under the house 
of a Mr. Bowers, a citizen of Yazoo City. The 
dwelling rested on brick pillars of about four feet 
elevation in the front and gradually ran back until 
at the rear it touched the ground. 

In these cramped quarters, with a damp ground 
under foot and a mouldy smell that was atiything 
but agreeable, I followed my companions in the 
search after happiness by playing hookey or in other 
words, by disobedience of home, domestic and school 
laws. 

I remember to have sat down on the damp earth~ 
with my head close to the spider-web draped beams 
and timbers above me and looked for Happiness to 
appear as had been promised. But I saw no sign 
and so expressed myself, while I began to feel very 
low-spirited. 



66 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



But the leader of our little band informed me that 
it would come after awhile, and especially after we 
had played a few games of tag, hiding the switch 
and some others he named. But the quarters were 
cramped, the air seemed to get mouldier, and anyhow 
my heart continually got heavier, and fleeting thoughts 
of my devoted and superior mother, what she would 
think of me and what she would say and what 
she would do when I went home and told her where 
I had been — all these things exercised such a melan- 
choly, doleful power on my mind and heart that 
already my confidence in disobedience as a producer 
of happiness was shaken to the very foundation. 

But the leader had reserved one of his best and 
most sprightly games to the last. It was called 
"Chicky-Me-Crany-Crow," and was performed by all 
of us marching around in a ring with one in the 
center who was dubbed The Old Witch. The chant 
of the song was intended to be cheerful, but on that 
afternoon sung about four o'clock with tired body, 
empty stomach and time for returning home drawing 
near, it was the most doleful affair in the song line 
that I ever remember to have heard. And when the 
song said, went to the well to wash my toe" — I 
felt I wanted to fly home, bury my face in my moth- 
er's lap and all but wash my eyes out with tears of 
repentance over my act of folly and sin. And when 
the question was asked at the periodic stop made in 



Playing Hookey. 



67 



the g-ame— "What time is it, Old Witch?" and the 
answer was given, one, two, or three o'clock, my 
miserable heart cried out — "It is not time at all — ■ 
this is eternity ! When is it to end ?" 

When I all but crept and slouched my way home 
I hardly looked like the well-dressed mother-kept 
boy that had left in the morning at eight o'clock in 
the search after happiness. It was now nearly five 
o'clock, and I felt with my sad, humbled, disappointed, 
guilty heart that I had aged years in those few hours 
and that I had received a lesson which had come 
like the lash of a whip and the sting of a scorpion and 
which would remain a sorrowful, regretful mark 
upon spirit and memory as long as my life on earth 
should last. 

And when I see numbers rushing in the path o£ 
disobedience for happiness, no matter to what house or 
hall they go, what dance or revelry they engage in, 
or what song, ballad or opera they sing, I have a 
sudden vision of some mistaken, misguided little boys 
under Mr. Bowers' house; again I hear the doleful 
strains of Chicky-Me-Crank Crow ; I see the desper- 
ate effort after happiness in impossible circumstances, 
and hear the periodic question of the flying hours? 
of life, "What time is it?" And as one, two, three, 
and the other periods are tolled out and a satisfactory 
answer is never given, I behold the march resumed, the 
song repeated, the hopeless quest taken up again, 



68 



Graphic Sci^nes. 



until finally the night of death comes, the summons 
home is given, and a lot of disobedient beings go 
out into eternity to meet a disappointed and offended 
God. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



The: LKSSON Ol^ the: IyADDE:R. 

When I was eleven years of age, a great menag- 
erie, with attendant athletes, tight rope walkers, etc., 
came to town where I lived. My mother being absent 
on a visit, I was allowed to attend the performance 
by an indulgent sister. 

I remember to have had only a mild interest in the 
animals, while the harlequins or clowns were in my 
green judgment, exquisitely humorous and in every 
respect superior to the dumb show in the cages. But 
the acrobatic performances on the dizzy trapeze, mid- 
air flights, back somersaults' and the walking of tight 
ropes held my attention most profoundly. 

I was especially impressed at the sight of two men 
holding a ladder in an upright position, while a third 
in tights and spangles went rung by rung to the top 
and there stood on his head for a full minute, while 
the band played and the audience applauded. 

It all seemed so easily done that I did not question 
my ability a single second to perform the same deed 
in the back yard of our home. 

That very afternoon I secured a twelve-foot ladder 

69 



70 



Graphic Sci:ne:s. 



from the stable, directed two little colored boys of 
ten and twelve years of age to hold it steadily while 
I ascended to the top. 

At this distance of time I do not remember whether 
I intended to try standing on my head or on my feet 
when I arrived at the culminating rung. That recol- 
lection must have been knocked out of me that day. 
I only recall that as I reached the summit I heard the 
colored boys crying out that they could not hold the 
ladder any longer ; that it was going ; and I felt and 
knew it was ; and then with a great crash I came to 
the ground and felt and knew no more. 

A large mulatto negro saw the downfall from his 
cabin door, leaped a fence, and picking me up, carried 
me into the house and laid my unconscious form on 
the bed amid the fright and grief of the family and 
servants combined. A physician was summoned, re- 
storatives and remedies were applied and I came back 
to consciousness and life after quite a while, with 
much pain in my head and body, but a great deal of 
profitable knowledge besides concerning the vanity of 
acrobatic stunts, the certainty of the law of gravity, 
the wonderful power of bodies meeting suddenly, and 
the decided superiority of staircases to ladders in the 
matter of going from the bottom to the top of these 
similar and yet dissimilar pieces of domestic archi- 
tecture. 

I remember to have carried my head sideways for 



Th^ Li^sson of rut Laddejr. 71 

half a week as one of the effects of the fall. And 
when after my recovery I walked down town, where 
my mishap had been heard of and heartily laughed 
over, I encountered much smiling, and received a lot 
of facetious inquiry and advice from a number of 
gentlemen who were friends and acquaintances of our 
family. 

I was asked if I intended starting an acrobatic 
troupe soon? And would I go starring through the 
country or continue to see stars in the backyard of 
my home? And did I not judge it expedient to prac- 
tice a good deal before I tried that particular athletic 
stunt again? 

Well, it is all over and gone now. The pangs of 
head and soreness of body due to the occurrence have 
departed. But there were several lessons imparted 
that day which have not and will never be forgotten. 

One is that there are some things that look easier 
than they really are. The ladder affair seemed simple 
enough to the acrobat; but it was not so to me. It 
was beyond me. In fact, it came near putting me into 
the greater and unrecallable beyond. 

Impromptu address seems easy. The ability to 
rise to an occasion when a speech has not been pre- 
pared is regarded as a small matter by many, but 
those who have tried it, without certain qualifications 
of brain, tongue and self-collectedness, have broken 
their heads in the effort to climb the ladder. 



72 



Graphic Sc^ne:s. 



Some one saw Henry Ward Beecher tested in this 
identical way. It was all unexpected by him; but he 
spoke most happily and powerfully for fifty minutes. 
A friend said, ''You did wonderfully to-day consid- 
ering you had no time for preparation." 

His reply was, "My preparation for this sudden 
speech covers forty years." 

In other words, what seemed easy was not so 
really. There is a great difference between a 
trained platform acrobat, and a wondering, admiring, 
imitating little fellow in the audience. 

Real preaching seems simple enough to many. 
Felicitous, unctuous, powerful delivery of the Word is 
thought by a number to cost no more than opening the 
mouth. It is not so. It is in a true sense not easy. It 
means a full mind, trained powers, much prayer in 
secret and the Spirit of God abiding in the soul. 

A young man contemplating the ministry was as 
ignorant of these thingsi as the boy was about the 
ladder. He had observed preachers speaking freely 
and powerfully for an hour at a time, and all they 
seemed to do was to take a text from the Bible, and 
have a glass of water on the pulpit or table near by. 
They would sip a mouthful of water and talk five 
or ten minutes, sip again and talk some more, and it 
all looked so ordinary an accomplishment that he 
requested to be allowed to deliver some remarks of a 
religious character at one of the next meetings. 



Th]S Lesson oi^ th^ Laddkr. 



73 



Not being well known and the desire being in the 
church to encourage a worthy subject, permission was 
granted. 

The young would-be orator saw to it himself that 
a tumbler of water stood near his hand. 

It is said that he read a text from Scripture, an- 
nounced the verse, chapter and book, and nothing 
coming to his mind, he sipped his water. Still noth- 
ing arising in his brain or coming to his lips, he in- 
dulged in another mouthful of water in a tremulous, 
anxious way; and in a third swallow found with 
increasing alarm, that still neither ideas nor words' 
flowed! The intellectual pump was dry, the well 
beneath was empty, and as this fearful fact broke on 
the comprehension of the youth, he took a fourth sip 
of the non-inspiring fluid, wiped great beads, of per- 
spiration from his brow, and then suddenly and most 
ingloriously jumped from the platform and struck 
out with a rapid gait for a strip of woods about fifty 
feet away. 

A revival meeting is another thing that seems 
easy enough. Not a person attending the protracted 
services, but seems to feel competent to say what the 
preacher should preach, how the service should be 
conducted, what propositions should be made, how the 
altar work should be conducted; indeed, everything 
that pertains to that most trying and difficult of all 
religious gatherings, the real revival. 



74 



Graphic Sce:ne:s. 



Few of the criticising- fraternity realize the mental 
furnishing that is needed, or think of the hours of 
lonely prayer with God, the private and public attacks 
of men, the terrific assaults of evil spirits, the abusive 
letters received, the deceitfulness of the human heart, 
the wearing of body and mind oftentimes, the neces- 
sity of no common-place generalship, and scores of 
other things I have not time to mention. 

It looks easy enough to the man sitting off ob- 
serving the proceedings. Why certainly anybody can 
climb an upright ladder. Anybody can conduct a suc- 
cessful meeting of ten, twenty or thirty days. All he 
needs is a long-skirted coat, a limp-back Bible and a 
singer to lead the hymns, and the thing is done. 

Yes, but what thing is done? There are different 
kinds of things; and there are varied results attend- 
ing certain performances according to the individual 
who does the performing. The acrobat went success- 
fully to the top of the ladder and so conquered several 
laws at its summit, that the audience broke into ap- 
plause. But the writer attempting the same thing 
got such a fall that it is simply amazing that his head 
and a half dozen ribs were not broken, while the slim 
audience he had that afternoon were filled with con- 
sternation and the air loaded with lamentation. 

As for protracted meetings, it takes gifts and 
grace to run them. Who is willing to climb the 
ladder, with a few to hold it up? As for a revival, 



The: Lksson of the: L,adde:r. 



75 



not one in ten protracted meetings ever flowers forth 
into a genuine revival. 

Who is that I heard falling on the ground just 
then? 

A successful or victorious life also looks easy. 

Look at them at the summit. See how they went 
up rung after rung so quickly and without apparent 
difficulty. Hear the crowd applauding. Behold the 
pubHc recognizing the achievement and merit. See 
the church and state putting honor upoji them. Go 
still farther and hear the Great Judge at the Last Day 
saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord, and rule now forever 
over many things." 

Surely it must be easy to do all that went before, 
and come into these lofty places of earth and Heaven. 

But what does the history of such conquerors say 
about these triumphs of time, self, salvation and char- 
acter ? 

As for men who became great as warriors, states- 
men, orators, authors and scholars, the record is that 
w^hat seemed an almost effortless history to the care- 
less reader or onlooker was preceded by many years of 
hardest, severest study and of undeviating toil, strug- 
gle and battle with every kind of discouragement, 
difficulty and opposition. In a word, these acrobats 
of the high places of earth, filling these positions at 
last so easily and successfully, had a training and dis-' 



Graphic Sce:ne:s. 



cipline utterly unknown to their admirers and without 
which they could not have astonished the open- 
mouthed and eye-stretched individuals in the audience. 

As for men who have been great with God on 
earth and will be in high places in Heaven; accord- 
ing to the Bible and their experience, their training , 
and discipline were intense and immense. They left 
all and followed Christ. They died to the world and 
their own reputation. They prayed, testified, preached 
and lived constantly in high places of truth, experience 
and salvation; but they were training when others 
were idling ; they were on their knees in prayer while 
others were gossiping in the social circle; they were 
living for God while others were thinking and plan- 
ning and working for their personal ends of property, 
popularity and earthly advancement. 

No, there are those who cannot stand on the top 
of such a ladder. They have not had the private 
training necessary to bring them into public recog- 
nition as a man who can successfully occupy the high 
places of the spiritual and character realm. The power 
to prevail with God, and mightily stir and move men 
to thought and action on religious lines does not come 
accidentally. It may look easy to the boy in the 
crowd, but the man on the ladder knows better. 

About such failures in life we have this to say. 

First, some are killed. The Bible, the histories 
of earth, and our own observation all reveal a fearful 



The; Le^sson the; Ladde^r. 



77 



number of people who fell from places where they 
were not fitted mentally or morally to be. 

Second, there are still others who carry their 
heads sideways the rest of their lives because of their 
ignorance, presumption and rashness in places and 
circumstances that proved altogether too high for 
them in view of their past lives and lack of attain- 
ments. 

I have heard preachers harshly criticise and 
judge older ministers' of the Gospel who were leading 
hundreds and thousands of souls to God when the 
faultfinders were, according to their own confession, 
living lives of iniquity and crime. I have known of 
men who in middle age were suddenly converted, and 
then spent their forces of ridicule and denunciation 
of Christian congregations and churches who were 
living decently and morally when these same detrac- 
tors and abusers were wallowing in the mud and 
mire of worldliness, drunkenness and sensuality. 

The ladder was too high for them; it was to be 
filled by a different character and spirit; and so they 
tumbled and got an awful fall. In the sourness of 
spirit and hardness of soul which came upon them it 
was evident that they were badly hurt. They carried 
their heads sideways, so to speak, the balance of their 
days. 

Third, some others get their heads well and straight 
again and quit climbing into places that they are not 



78 



Graphic Sce^ne^s. 



qualified to fill, and where neither God nor man has 
called them. 

In the pertness of ministerial youth, I once in a 
speech criticised a gray-haired preacher on the Con- 
ference floor. I got a fall from the ladder and carried 
nry head sideways, with a great ache in the heart 
besides, for many months. I have never climbed that 
particular ladder again. 

Truly many of us have troubles in various ways 
since we began the Christian life. The ladders of 
intolerance, hasty judgment, suspicion, unkindness', 
fancied wisdom, eloquence and influence were all 
around and looked so tempting. We could easily 
run up to the top, show off, and come back again. 
But lo, we got a tumble. The audience did not ap- 
plaud, but smiled broadly, and unquestionably over 
the consequent sidewise tilt of the head. 

Well, thank God, many get well from the bumps 
and bruises they receive in life; and become blessed 
themselves and a blessing to others. The timid Mark 
became brave for Christ at last. The rash Peter grew 
gentle and tender. The fiery, cruel Paul was so filled 
with perfect love that when he took ship to leave a 
church, a great company followed him to the shore, 
and the elders fell on his neck weeping, and kissed 
him, sorrowing most of all for the words he spoke 
that they should see his face no more. 

And so with us all. If we have been unwise and 



The I^KSSOn 0? the: Ladder. 



79 



blundered, the Lord can mend the head, and renew the 
heart, and send us on the road to Heaven, perfectly- 
cured of the ladder business, walking humbly and 
faithfully with God, and meekly, gently, patiently and 
lovingly with men, until he lets another kind of ladder 
down from the blue which leads directly into the 
skies, and from which we will not be permitted to 
fall, as clinging to Him we ascend into Heaven. 



CHAPTER IX. 
A Laps^ Yi^ars. ^ 

The Civil War period of 1861-5, covering four 
years of my boyhood, was full of event and incident 
to me. But in this volume I do not feel drawn to 
write about those days so full of pain, suffering and 
sorrow to millions. 

Suffice to say that my mother moved from her 
home in Yazoo City to a plantation on Bee Lake, 
sixteen miles away. Here for three years and a half 
I studied, read, sailed or boated on this beautiful 
sheet of water, or fished on its cypress-lined shores 
or roamed with gun on shoulder through the sighing 
depths of the forest, and one summer listened to the 
big siege guns of beleaguered Vicksburg booming 
faintly in the distance. 

The last five months of the war, I, a mere lad, 
enlisted in the cavalry, joining Company K, Wood^s 
Regiment, Wirt Adams Brigade, of Forest's Corps. 

After the "Surrender" I was sent by my mother 
to college at the University of Mississippi. 

On leaving Oxford, it was thought best by mem- 
bers of the family that I should study a profession. 

80 



A Lapse: Ye:ars. 



8i 



And first Medicine and then Law was begun. But 
such was the prostrate financial condition of the peo- 
ple in the South that many thousands of her youth 
had to give up all aspirations in certain professional 
directions, and do whatever came to hand. So as I 
saw the hopelessness of the case, I ceased my wrest- 
lings with Anatomy Materia Medica and Botany, and 
later cut the acquaintance of Blackstone, but read 
everything else besides that I could lay my hands on. 

God evidently had plans concerning me and was 
leading me by a series of disappointments and through 
the instrumentality of a number of closed doors in a 
way that I knew not and understood not. I thought 
I was given up, when the Saviour was all the while 
slowly but surely bringing me to Himself and to the 
work of my life. 



CHAPTER X. 



My Conversion. 

The first deep religious' impression I can recall 
occurred in my boyhood. A protracted meeting was 
being conducted in the town where I was raised. 
Several preachers were in attendance, and I, a lad of 
eight or ten years, was present a few times. At the 
close of the services, and on the departure of the 
ministers, I remember to have gone into a room alone, 
and, casting myself on the bed, wept a considerable 
while. At that time I felt a great softness of heart, 
and realized a decided drawing to, and preference 
for, the Christian life; but in the course of a few 
weeks it all passed away. 

At the age of nineteen or twenty, on returning 
from college, I joined a fashionable church of another 
denomination from that in which I had been raised. 
This step was brought about mainly through certain 
social influences, and in connecting myself with that 
branch of Christ's Church there was no change of 
heart, nor indeed any deep spiritual impression. 

At the age of twenty-six, with a young wife and 
two children, God found me. For years I had not 

82 



My Conve:rsion. 



83 



been to church, avoided preachers, laughed at rehgion, 
and was on the broad road to ruin. I regarded not 
the Sabbath, was a great smoker of tobacco, had got 
to imbibing wine occasionally, and was very profane. 
My temper at this time had become ungovernable, and 
the devil undoubtedly had me. 

In the place where the Savior found me there were 
no churches' and no Christians. Instead of this, there 
was any amount of card-playing, horse-racing, and 
whiskey-drinking. I did not take up with these last 
three things, but, nevertheless, spiritually I was in a 
lost condition. 

The way my conversion took place has been an 
unceasing wonder to me, as well as source of endless 
gratitude. 

Let the reader remember that there were no 
churches in miles of me, and no preachers or Chris- 
tians around. 

The business of the store in which I was employed 
as clerk and bookkeeper fell off greatly during the 
summer of 1874. I used to walk up and down the 
lonely building and meditate. Christ had got me at 
last to a place where I was quiet, and could think. 
The thought which repeatedly arose to my mind, and 
with ever-increasing bitterness and sorrow, was that 
I was a failure ; that at twenty-six years of age I had 
done nothing and was nothing. 

I can see now that the Spirit was very busy with ^ 



84 



Graphic Sc^ni:s. 



me; I could not recognize His work so readily then, 
but it is all clear now. He had no one to use in that 
part of the country to teach me, and so worked di- 
rectly upon my mind and heart. Repeatedly, when 
alone in the store, I have buried my face in the piles 
of goods on the counter, and wept the saddest of tears. 
Then there would come longings to redeem my life, 
and be a true man. But I was profoundly ignorant 
as to what steps to take. 

At this juncture I wrote two or three lines' to my 
mother, saying: ''I am determined to be a better 
man, and when I am a better man, I am going to 
pray." 

The reply of my mother was all the help of a 
human character I obtained in my conversion. She 
wrote a hasty and brief answer, in these words : 

''My Di^ar Son, — I am delighted to hear of your 
good resolutions. But you have made a great mis- 
take. Don't wait to be a better man before you pray, 
but pray, and you will be a better man. 

''Affectionately, Your Mother." 

This note brought a perfect flood of light to my 
mind. I saw I had been putting the cart before the 
horse. Like the lightning illumines the whole land- 
scape with a sudden flash, so God used the simple 
words of my mother to clear up the uncertainty and 



My Convi:rsion. 



85 



darkness, and I saw in an instant, and that most 
vividly, what I had to do. I must pray, and keep at 
it until something happened. 

That Thursday night I knelt down to pray at my 
bedside for the first time since my boyhood. My 
young wife looked perfectly astounded at the act. I 
do not believe that if a wild animal had leaped through, 
the window into the room, she could have been more 
amazed than she was at the spectacle of her kneeling 
husband; but I always possessed a goodly amount of 
will-power and what is commonly called backbone, 
and so prayed on. Still I did not believe God would 
have mercy on such a sinner as myself; and so He did 
not, for without faith it is impossible to please Him. 

Friday night I was on my knees again before 
retiring; but it seemed to me that God was far away 
in Heaven, and I was down here on earth, and I did 
not see how He could save me. And so He did not, 
for here was unbelief again. 

On Saturday night I went again through the mel- 
ancholy and apparently fruitless struggle. I arose 
with neither light nor comfort, but full of determin- 
ation to press on and pray on until something hap- 
pened. 

On Sunday the store was closed, and I had the 
entire Sabbath at home. After breakfast I walked 
out in a grove near the house, and there, hidden from 
view, knelt down amid the trees, and with longing 



86 



Graphic Sci:ne:s. 



eyes looked up through an open space into the blue 
heaven. I told God that I gave Him myself and all 
I had, that I wanted salvation and rest, and please for 
Christ's sake to take me. I pleaded with Him in this 
way for quite a while, and discontinued I know not 
why. I walked thoughtfully back to the house, and 
took my seat by the side of a center-table in the room. 
I picked up the Bible to read, and had scarcely read a 
line when suddenly I was converted. Such a peace and 
rest flooded my soul as I had never felt before in my 
life, and it was so new, so sweet, so strangely blissful, 
so melting, that I burst into tears, and cried out to 
my wife on the opposite side of the table, ''O Laura, 
I am not going to Hell after all !" 

I went across the room, and poured water into 
the basin to bathe my tear-stained face. But I found 
that a fountain was flowing which I could not stop ; 
and a blessed, beautiful love and peace was in me 
that water could not wash away. 

In a few hours the ecstasy was gone; but I was 
a changed man. Moreover, everybody saw it, at 
home and abroad. 

In going from my house to the store, two miles 
away, I would pray three times before I got there. 
I had the places picked out, one in a deep wooded 
valley, one in a willow thicket in the middle of the 
field, and one on the top of a hill, protected from view 
by a clump of trees. 



My Conve^rsion. 



87 



I was very ignorant in regard to spiritual things; 
but I kept on praying, read much in a Bible which I 
carried in my pocket; began family prayer, although 
it came near choking me to lead worship before my 
wife and neighbors who dropped in; and, in addition, 
talked to everybody who would listen to me about this 
new, strange, wonderfull life which had come to me. 

Two men drove up to the store one day, and after 
the exchange of salutations, pulled out a flask of 
whiskey and asked me if I would take a drink with 
them. I replied: "No, I thank you. Now, as you 
have offered something to me, let me read something 
to you out of this Book." 

I began drawing my little Bible out of my pocket ; 
but the instant they saw what it was, they gave their 
horse a sharp cut with the whip, and without a word 
of farewell dashed down the road. To this day I can 
recall their astonished look, discomfitted faces, and 
rapid retreat. 

Yet with this completely changed life, I could not 
understand many things about my own experience. 
I could not see why that delightful joy which had 
filled me that Sabbath morning had left me. I knew 
it was from God; but why should it depart? It did 
not abide, although it left me a changed man. The 
constant query of my mind was relative to that new 
sweet emotion that swept over me. Was it salvation, 
or God simply encouraging and drawing me on to 



88 



Graphic Sci:NE:s. 



salvation yet to come? Let the reader remember I 
had no one to look to or advise with. 

One day there came an unutterable longing to 
experience again the same sweet spiritual sensation 
which had flooded me for the first time a few days 
before. In my rummaging over the library for re- 
ligious books, I had found an old work, wherein I 
read of a devout woman who was so humble that she 
always prayed to God on her face. It made a deep 
impression on me. I was standing on the gallery of 
the store, thinking about it, with that hungry heart of 
mine. Looking up and down the lung road, I saw 
no one in sight, whereupon I stretched myself upon 
the ground, put my face down in the grass, and asked 
God to please grant me the same blessed joy He had 
given me in my house that Sabbath morning, that I 
might know I was His. Instantly I was filled with 
holy joy, the identical first experience. I arose from 
the ground all smiles, and with happy tears flowing 
down my face. But in a few hours it was all gone 
again. 

So passed ten days or two weeks away, when I 
became hungry for spiritual instruction. There was' 
so much I did not understand, and craved to know. 

I determined to go to a Methodist preacher, and 
lay the whole case before him. So, saddling my horse, 
I rode twelve miles to Yazoo City, and called on the 
Rev. R. D. Norsworthy. There were other preachers 



My Conv£;rsion". 



89 



ki the town; but it is significant that I felt drawn to 
go to a minister of the Church of my mother, and in 
which I had been brought up. 

This Methodist pastor said afterwards, that as he 
saw me walking towards his gate he felt, as he looked 
at my face, that he had business on his hands. Tell- 
ing him that I desired to speak with him on spiritual 
matters, he dismissed all from the room, asked me to 
be seated, and to tell him what was on my mind. 

Something of my ignorance of reHgious phrases 
and terms can be seen in one of the first utterances 
that fell from my lips. The preacher must have been 
amused, if not amazed. I said in a broken voice : 

"Mr. Norsworthy, I am an awakened man; but I 
do not think I am convicted yet ;" and promptly bury- 
ing my face in my hands, burst into a flood of tears. 

From this occurrence it can be seen that the heart 
and head do not always run equally together in the 
race for Heaven. It is possible to be all right in soul, 
and not understand theology. The spiritual part of 
a divine blessing can come on the lightning express, 
while the intellectual part may arrive some hours or 
days later on the freight. 

The preacher saw at once that I was a converted 
man; but determined that God should tell me, and in 
His own way and time. He, however, quoted a num- 
ber of Bible passages to me, which brought floods of 
light then and afterwards. 



90 



Graphic Sce:ni:s. 



So, on returning home, when this beautiful joy 
swept again into my heart, I knew it was the Spirit's 
witness to my salvation and sonship. I pored over 
the Bible, devoured every good book I could find, 
prayed on my knees six or seven times a day, talked 
religion to everybody, stirred up the whole country, 
saw my wife and sister both converted in less than a 
month, and became blessedly established in a few 
weeks. 



CHAPTER XI. 



CaIvIv to th^ Ministry. 

Soon after my conversion, I felt drawn to join 
the Methodist Church. Hiring a buggy, I drove into 
Yazoo City one Saturday with my wife and two chil- 
dren. The little ones were brought in to be baptized. 
We all came to the altar together, the whole family 
being given to God at the same hour. On returning 
to my pew, I was melted with heavenly love, and 
wept convulsively with my head bowed on the bench 
before me. An old gray-haired member of thd 
church, Brother Hunter by name, came over to me, 
and, giving me his hand, wept also as he tried to 
speak. 

It was while sitting in this pew I felt the first call 
to preach. As my eyes fell on the preacher who had 
taken me into the Church, and who was now speaking 
in the pulpit, a voice whispered within me, "That 
is your place." 

I was astonished, and yet thrilled. In another 
moment this verse was deeply impressed upon me, 
and I was less familiar with it than many other pas- 
sages: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the 

91 



92 



Graphic Sci:ne;s. 



feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publish- 
eth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that 
pubhshed salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God 
reigneth !" 

As these words lingered like a strain of melody 
in my heart, I found a great desire springing up to 
do as the verse said. It seemed, however, as I medi- 
tated upon the matter, among the impossibilities, and 
so I dismissed the thought, and remembered the im- 
pression no more for days. 

After this my pastor paid me a short visit, and 
while walking with him along the road, he suddenly 
turned, and said, ''My brother, you ought to preach." 

Again I was both pleased and yet disturbed. Then 
followed several weeks of a most remarkable struggle 
in regard to the matter. An impression was on me 
that I must preach, accompanied with delightful 
divine touches upon the soul ; but as I reasoned against 
and resisted it, a profound gloom would come upon 
me for hours. 

While in this state of mind I spoke one day to a 
friend and relative, who was an unconverted man, 
telling him of the impression upon me, but that I felt 
so unworthy that it seemed to me if I should enter 
the pulpit some one ought to kick me out. His reply 
was, "If you feel this way, you evidently ought not 
to preach." 

His answer brought no relief, but cast me down 



Cali. to THi; Ministry. 



93 



more than ever. It was some time afterward before 
I got the hght to see that he, being an unregenerated 
man, was in no condition to give advice in spiritual 
"matters. I also came to see that a sense of unworthi- 
ness is a good and proper feeling for one to have who 
enters upon the sacred vocation of the ministry. I 
saw that while I had expressed myself unfortunately 
in confessing to my sense of unworthiness, yet back 
of the faulty words was a right spirit and state of 
heart with which God was well pleased. 

There were two approaches to the house where I 
lived, — one which skirted a field and went over a hill 
to the high road, and another much shorter, which 
passed through a narrow, dark valley of several hun- 
dred yards in extent. This valley was so filled with 
forest trees, growing up its steep sides and bending 
over at the summit, that even in the daytime the place 
was' shadowy and gloomy-looking; but at night the 
darkness was intense, and on starlit nights it was ex- 
ceedingly difficult to see the path which wound about 
through the trees, crossing and recrossing the little 
branch of water that trickled down the center. 

One night I entered this place, trying to persuade 
myself that it was impossible for me to preach, that 
I did not have the ability, the eloquence, and many 
other things that I thought to be necessary. I formd 
that as I thus mentally argued against my entering 
upon such a calling and life, that I was becoming more 



94 



Graphic Scsjns;^."^ 



and more darkened in mind and wretched in soul. 
About the time I reached the darkest portion of the 
woods, I felt that the valley was not as black as my 
spirit in its conscious lack of all spiritual light and 
comfort. I was in such misery, and there came upon 
me such a horror of darkness, that I fell upon the 
ground, and rolled upon the leaves in the most acute 
and overwhelming distress. 

Suddenly, I know not why, I looked up, and cried 
out, "Lord, I will preach," when instantly the glory 
of God filled me, the dark valley fairly flashed and 
glittered, and laughing, crying, and shouting, I leaped 
along the path, jumped the branch, ran up the hill- 
side, on the top of which was my home, and fairly 
quivering Avith joy, and vidth my face all aglow with 
the happiness in me, I stood before my wife in the 
sitting-room, crying out, "I will preach." 

This joy remained in me for several days, when 
I began looking again at my unfitness. I remembered 
I had never been trained to speak in public, had not 
gone to a theological school, was far from sure that 
I could preach a sermon, etc. Whereupon all the old 
gloom came back upon me. 

I struggled along with the depression the best I 
could while I attended to the work at the store. One 
day I was out on a collecting tour, and had ridden 
from house to house, and plantation to plantation 
with my bills and accounts, and was that wretched I 



Cai,!. to the; Ministry. 



95 



could scarcely speak to the people I was calling upon. 
Happening to pass in the neighborhood of my home 
in the afternoon, my wife, seeing my fatigue and mel- 
ancholy, insisted on my stopping while she had me 
a lunch prepared. I sat down at the table mechan- 
ically, and did not even notice what was placed before 
me. I fear I did not hear her when she spoke to me. 
I was in a gloom that God himself was putting on me 
to bring me to my senses. 

I cannot tell why I did so, but without any mental 
process leading up to the speech, without having anti- 
cipated saying it a minute beforehand, and just as if 
it was hurled out of me by some internal force, I 
struck the table with my clenched fist and cried, 
"I will preach the Gospel !" Instantly the glory of 
God filled me so that I laughed, wept, and rejoiced 
uncontrollably for fully a half hour. 

Will the reader be out of patience with me, when 
I state that, in spite of all this evident will of God 
in my case, I allowed Satan in the next hour to direct 
my mind to the fact that I was no speaker, never had 
been one, and that the twenty-sixth year of one's 
life was a very late hour to get ready for such an im- 
portant work. The consequence was, another spell of 
gloom followed. For in less than a minute after I 
allowed the doubt to enter, God's Spirit withdrew, and 
left me in the old-time horrible gloom. 

It gives me pleasure to state that the next battle 



96 



Graphic Sc^nks. 



I fought proved a victory, and one that was glorious, 
complete and permanent. 

Several days after the occurrence just related, I 
was sitting one night in company with my wife in our 
room. She was sewing by lamp-light on one side of 
the center-table, while I was on the other side, unable 
to read, talk and scarcely think, because of the bur- 
den on the heart and conflict in the mind. Forgetful 
of her presence and everything else in my misery, 
suddenly as had happened twice before, without any 
studied purpose of saying such words, here they came 
again, "God helping me, I zi'ill preach the Gospel," 
when such a flash of light, such a tender, melting^ 
thrilling joy entered my soul, that I leaped to my 
feet, and stood all trembling and transfigured before 
my wife. To this day I recall her words : 

"Beverly, how can you doubt God's will in this 
matter any longer, after what he has just done for 
you?" 

Thank God ! I never did any more. From that 
hour to this, there has never been a question in my 
mind but that God, in his infinite condescension, 
called me to preach the Gospel of his blessed Son, the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

A few weeks after this I was recommended by the 
Church Conference of Yazoo City, Rev. R. D. Nors- 
worthy, pastor, to the Quarterly Conference for 
license to preach. The last named body licensed and 



Cai,!, To the: Ministry. 



97 



recommended me to the Mississippi Annual Confer- 
ence. A single vote was cast against me ; it was that 
of the old man who had wept over me when I joined 
the Church. He doubtless could not see how so much 
could be done for a young man in so brief a period — • 
converted July 12th, and here in October licensed to 
preach and recommended to the Annual Conference. 
It all looked like undue haste and general premature- 
ness to him. He did not know that sometimes people 
can live a year in one day, and that God can marvel- 
lously carry on His work in a surrendered soul and 
life. 

I was outside of the Church while they were bal- 
loting on my name, having been requested to with- 
draw. I can see the old brick building now, the place 
where I had gone to Sunday-school as a child, and 
attended Church with miy mother, brother and sisters. 
My mind was not on what the Quarterly Conference 
was doing inside. I was in the shadow of an old 
tree which grew near the pavement, and was looking 
up at the distant stars, filled with thoughts of Christ, 
and feeling what an honor and responsibility was 
laid on me in preaching the Gospel. 

Some one came to the church door and called me. 
I went in, and was told by the presiding elder, the 
Rev. H. H. Montgomery, that I had been licensed to 
preach, and recommended for the traveling connec- 
tion in the Mississippi Annual Conference, the next 



98 



Graphic Sce;nes. 



session of which was to be held in December, 1874, 
in the town of Hazelhurst. 

That night, when assigned to a room in the hos- 
pitable home of the Methodist pastor, I could not 
sleep; but lay thinking and praying on the bed. It 
seemed so strange to be a preacher. Then I felt so 
keenly my littleness that I was quite cast down. 
Suddenly I had such a view of Christ presenting me 
to his Father, protecting and covering me by his love, 
grace and power, that I was filled with one of the 
sweetest blessings I had ever experienced. 

Having a long ride before me the next day, I 
arose before daylight without disturbing the family, 
saddled my horse, and left Yazoo City asleep behind 
me, while the firmament was twinkling above my 
head, and the morning star hung, a great orb of 
beauty, in the east, the beautiful forerunner of the 
unrisen sun. 

I was five miles from town when the day began 
to break. The cotton and corn fields had little spots 
and banks of silver haze upon them. A sweetness 
and freshness was in the air of the early dawn that was 
like an elixir to brain and heart. The hills were 
standing up in the indistinct light, solemn and gray, 
like great altars. A slight mist on their heads looked 
like rising incense. Nature seemed to be sacrificing 
to God. I was drinking it all into my already over- 
flowing soul, when fully a quarter of a mile away, on 



CalIv to th^ Ministry. ' 99 



one of the hills, I heard a negro man singing. His 
voice was rich, deep and solemn. The hymn was a 
plaintive old melody. The words and music God 
brought to me through the misty, tremulous, beauti- 
ful morning air were: 

"Awake, my soul, stretch ev'ry nerve, 

And press with vigor on, 
A heavenly race demands thy zeal 

And an immortal crown." 

How the sacred song echoed and re-echoed over 
the fields, in the valley, and was thrown back from 
the opposite hillsides ! I was almost breathless, while 
the words "heavenly race" and ''immortal crown" 
seemed to linger the longest. 

The singer was hidden from me in the trees on 
the hill. He knew not that his song was reaching, 
filling, and blessing me, and this made it all the more 
powerful. I had checked the canter of my horse, and 
was walking him along the road, that I might catch 
'every strain and hear every word. The singer was 
deliberate. He seemed to be employed in some 
kind of work, and hence took his time ; so that a full 
minute elapsed, giving the strains of the first verse 
full time to die away in the distance before he re- 
sumed again. This' time it was: 



100 



Graphic Sce:ne:s. 



"A cloud of witnesses around, 

Hold thee in full survey; 
Forget the steps already trod, 

And onward urge thy way." 

This time I felt the wonderful strengthening and 
girding power of the words, and said most fervently, 
*Xord, it shall be so." 

Again, after a pause, came another verse, thrown 
outward by the mellow, solemn voice of the singer : 

"'Tis God's all animating voice 

That calls thee from on high ; 
'Tis His own hand presents the prize 

To thine aspiring eye." 

Oh, how the strain and words sank into the soul ! 
The contrast between earth and Heaven was so pro- 
foundly felt. The littleness of the one, and the 
greatness and blessedness of the other seemed to be 
two facts unquestioned by the glowing heart. 

As the Negro sang that morning, would that all 
could have heard him in one of God's natural temples ! 
And yet, as far as I could see, there was but one 
listener and worshiper beside himself. What a pity 
not to have heard such a sacred song, with the sides 
of the valley for sounding-boards, the opaline sky for 
a ceiling, the floating mist on the hilltops like incense 
rising from majestic altars, while the silent woods 



Cai,!. to th:^ Ministry. ioi 



and fragrant canebreakes seemed actually to be drink- 
ing the scene and sound in, like the solitary listener ! 

The singer reached the fourth stanza. How tri- 
umphantly it rang out ! Not a note or word was lost : 

"That crown, witli peerless glories bright, 

Which shall new luster boast, 
When victors' wreaths and monarch's gems 

Shall blend in common dust." 

The world looked very little, and its honors and 
rewards very contemptible, under the words of the 
last verse. Heaven seemed the only thing worth liv- 
ing for. My heart was all melted, and the tears 
dropped fast. 

I had reined in my horse to hear the last strain 
and word of the hymn which God had sent to me. I 
also wanted to impress the scene upon my mind, and 
carry it away with me, a precious mental treasure 
forever. And I did so. 

After a little, when the silence reigned unbroken 
over the fields, and the singer had gone, I touched 
my horse and galloped swiftly away. I had many 
miles to go, and much to do that day. I had to tell 
my employer that God had work for me ; I wanted to 
see my mother and get her blessing ; and then I wanted 
to reach my own home by sundown, where my wife 
was waiting to hear what had happened, and what 
I was going to do. 



102 



Graphic Sce:ni:s. 



All this was attended to that day with a glad and 
overflowing heart. The die had been cast. I had 
crossed my Rubicon. I had turned my back on the 
old-time life forever, and was now the Lord's. I was^ 
His servant and ambassador from this time forth to 
preach His Gospel. 

But I took that morning picture with me. To 
this hour I see the dawning day, the outspread misty 
fields, the motionless woods, the silent, solemn hills, 
while floating over it all I hear the plaintive song of 
the unseen Negro singer, whom God sent forth to 
nerve, encourage, and bless the soul of a young, 
newly-made preacher. 

May he, with all others in the Christian ministry, 
be able to join in the last verse of the already quoted 
song that I heard that day. 

"Blest Savior, introduced by thee, 

Have I my race begun; 
Till, crowned with vict'ry, at thy feet 

I'll lay my honors down." 



CHAPTER XII. 



The: First Coni^eri^nce: and Appointme:nt. 

After having been licensed to preach and recom- 
mended by the Quarterly Conference to the Annual 
Conference; as a newly-fledged preacher I made pre- 
paration to attend that important assembly of one 
hundred and fifty ministers and laymen of the Church. 

For several years previous to conversion I had 
been connected with the mercantile life. My ignor- 
ance of matters ecclesiastical and ministerial was pro- 
found. I knew little about the work in which 
I was soon to be engaged, and nothing of the 
field where I was to be appointed. One thing I did 
know, and that was I had been most powerfully con- 
verted, was hungry to save souls, and that the whole 
earth had become a bright, beautiful, new world, 
through the sweet, beautiful, new love which God 
had put in my heart. 

Somehow I had picked up the idea that a preacher 
ought to wear a beaver hat. This was natural, as all 
the preachers in the town where I lived wore that 
lofty, distinguished head covering. In perfect sim- 
plicity of mind I thought that the two as necessarily 

103 



104 



Graphic Scejnks. 



went together as a helmet and warrior, a black robe 
and chief justice, or a leather apron and a black- 
smith. So in preparation for conference I was care- 
ful to secure a shining beaver hat, and did so with the 
spirit filling one who is discharging a solemn duty. 
The remainder of the wardrobe did not tally with the 
hat, but was a compound of a business and evening 
suit, consisting of a black sack coat and pearl-colored 
pantaloons. The state of the purse at that time pre- 
vented indulgence in regular clergyman garments. 
Perfectly accustomed to the kind of clothing I wore, 
I felt easy in the suit, and promised myself to regulate 
that part later on. My main dependence was on the 
hat, for I had conceived the opinion that a preacher 
was not rightly attired nor presentable unless he wore 
a beaver. 

To the Conference of grave, faithful ministers 
of the Gospel my combination suit, in which society, 
business and the church all met, must have presented 
a study! Certainly Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these. I doubt not I was 
a trial to many, a bewilderment to others, and a source 
of deep amusement to still others. The larger num- 
ber were too Christlike and pitiful and gentlemanly to 
say anything, or even let the young preacher see that 
he was not all in appearance that he should be, and 
that they would like him to be. 

There were a few, however, who did not follow 



The First Conekr^nc^. 105 



this godly example; and their cutting", satirical re- 
marks were soon brought, by busybodies, to the 
victim. The human target did not open his lips in 
reply ; the tears gushed to my eyes ; as I turned silently 
away with the first stabs that were destined to be the 
precursors of many thousands more in a long subse- 
quent Christian life. 

One thing I knew as my heart bled in my bosom ; 
that while every other preacher in the Conference 
room knew more theology, understood the Bible bet- 
ter, and could preach with greater ability than myself, 
yet I felt to the bottom of my soul that no man there 
had an humbler spirit than my own. There was not the 
slightest feeling of pride of appearance. There was 
no thought of clothing in the mind. The one prom- 
inent and dominant emotion in my heart had been a 
sweet, humble joy that I was allowed of God to live 
and labor with such holy men. There was no one of 
them but the misjudged young preacher would gladly 
have blacked his boots or served him in any way. 

The impression with a few was that the young 
probationer was a "greeny," and so one of the mes- 
sages sent me was "Would I like to learn how to 
catch gophers?" 

To show how mistaken the judgments of men are, 
the man they thus criticised was the opposite of the 
novice they thought him. He had been deep in the 
world, and knew all the ropes. He doubtless could 



io6 



Graphic Sce:ne:s. 



have amazed his critic with his revelations of the ways 
of the world. Alas for it ! he was in this respect far 
from being a "greeny." But he was now a new 
creature, wanted to do right, and to help save men 
from the same sinful world which he had forsaken. 
His apparent verdancy was simply his ignorance of 
the new realm upon which he had entered. 

The man who sent the message about the "goph- 
ers" lived to see the young preacher he ridiculed rise 
to the leading churches of his denomination, while 
the ridiculer himself, about ten years later, was ex- 
pelled from the ministry for the grossest of iniquity. 

So right here in the beginning of my ministry I 
learned a very important lesson, viz., that we cannot 
always judge a person's heart by mere externals. And 
often since then I have found humble and holy spirits 
tinder a handsome roof or nice-looking garment, and 
just as frequently have beheld the most intolerable 
pride in a jeans coat and brogan shoes. 

I soon got rid of the pearl-colored trousers, but 
held to the hat for fully two years longer, as I was 
still under the impression that it was a preacher's duty 
to wear a beaver. 

To this day I think, with a smile of mingled amuse- 
ment and melancholy, of what an appearance I must 
have made galloping along the public and private roads 
of my circuit. How the sun must have flashed and 
glistened from the silk hat, as from a helmet, and 



Th^ First Con:^i:ri:nc^. 107 



how the waiting congregation must have seen the 
sparkHng coming of their pastor while as yet he was 
a great way off. 

The day came, however, when I saw that the 
kingdom of God was not meat and drink, and so 
could not be the cut of a garment or the shape of a 
hat. Then perhaps the consciousness of an empty 
globe on the head may have suggested thoughts about 
another empty globe being in immediate and startling 
proximity to the other. Anyhow, the hat went, and 
another of much humbler proportions reigned in its 
stead. 

Being a college man, I went through the Confer- 
ence examination with flying colors on the text-books 
brought up. I did fairly well on the Bible, but went 
down with a crash on the Discipline. To the ques- 
tion if a member of the Church should break one of 
its rules, how would you proceed with him? the in- 
stantaneous answer was, ''I would turn him out." 
*'Would you not at first remonstrate with him, or send 
a committee to deal with him in some way?" The 
response was, "No, sir; I would see to an immediate 
expulsion. He had no business breaking the rule." 
How the chairman laughed, and how the rest of the 
class laughed is a vivid memory to this day. All knew 
more about the economy of the church than the young 
probationer who gave such immediate and energetic 
replies. 

******* 



io8 



Graphic Scsn^s. 



Without a steward, committee or congregation to 
welcome the new pastor, and in the face of the bitter- 
est weather I ever knew in my native State, I rented 
an empty cottage in a small town and moved in with 
my wife and two little children. The next day was 
the Sabbath. My first appointment was fourteen 
miles away; a snowfall nearly a foot deep covered 
the country; and the wind, veering into the north, 
locked everything in ice and pierced the face and body 
like daggers. 

Securing a horse, I started on the dreary journey. 
People in town told me no one would be out to service 
on such a day. But I replied, "I will be at my post 
whether others come or not." 

At eleven o'clock the country church was reached. 
With the snow piled up on its steps, icicles hanging 
from the roof, and gleaming white and bare in the 
midst of a wind-swept grove, the building looked as 
cheerless and cold as the weather outside. The wintry 
blast which tossed and wrung the branches of the 
stripped trees moaned through the belfry and around 
the eaves of the church. Not a human soul was in 
sight. Not a single track of man or animal was on 
the snow in front of the edifice. This was any thing 
but an inspiring beginning of the year's labor, and of 
a life work in addition to that. 

Hitching the faithful anmal where he was pro- 
tected from the wind, I attempted to get in at the two 



The: First CoNifi^RENc^. 



109 



doors, but both were locked. Then I tried the long 
line of windows, and found all fastened but the last 
one. Taking a fence rail from a frozen fence near 
by, I made a kind of ladder and crawled into the cold, 
silent building. 

I next knelt down in the altar and prayed a long 
while for the blessing of God upon my own soul, the 
work he had sent me to do, and upon the people I 
craved to see saved. In the midst of this prayer I 
heard some one trying to get in at one of the doors. 
I told the individual, whoever it was, that he would 
have to enter as I did, through the window. In a 
few moments more the man appeared through the 
unusual side entrance, and I found him to be the one 
steward I had in that part of the mission. 

After a little religious conversation I called him to 
his knees and prayed most earnestly and lovingly and 
unctiously for him and the church at that point. Soon 
after we shook hands and parted, the weather still 
cold, the roads and fields hard and frozen, but with our 
souls warm, tender and glowing. 

My solitary attendant of that day went through 
the neighborhood in the ensuing days and told the 
people how he had found their new pastor not only 
at church on that cold day, but on his knees praying 
in the church, and how he had gotten him also on his 
knees and prayed for him and for them all. 

Naturally, everybody wanted to see and hear a 



no 



Graphic Sceni;s. 



preacher that did things like this, and so on the next 
Sabbath appointment that same church had the largest 
audience gathered in its walls' that had ever been seen 
there before, no matter what was the occasion or howi 
pleasant the season. There was a blessed melting 
time on that second visit and service, and in two 
months more a revival broke out which swept over 
and through the entire district of country. 

This was the spiritual harvest; and the seed that 
started it was the blessing of God on that lonely dis- 
charge of duty and that solitary faithfulness to Christ, 
as I have already pictured, amid the silent aisles and 
empty altars of the snow-banked, ice-fringed church 
that was hidden far away in the country. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Tut First Circuit. 

My first circuit was on the shoestring order as to 
shape, being much longer than it was broad. The 
length was twenty-five miles, and as it possessed no 
railroad facilities, it had to be travelled on horseback. 

The deep forest that bordered a goodly part of 
the road made a wonderful closet of prayer for the 
inexperienced young preacher. I was not slow to turn 
aside and commune, in my ignorance and helplessness-, 
with God in the heart of his beautiful works. It was 
a hard, trying year, but out of these interviews and 
meetings with the Lord in the woods the servant would 
come from a communion of flame with the Master, 
ready and able for any kind of work and suffering. 

At the remote end of the circuit was a village called 
Vernon, which was the second appointment on the 
monthly round. This little community consisted of a 
post office, blacksmith shop, two stores, a half dozen 
private dwellings, and a Methodist church with pil- 
lared porch, and front and side yards lined with arbor 
vitse and cedar trees. 

The town was the center of a beautiful district of 
III 



112 



Graphic Sc^ne:s. 



country that was once as wealthy as it was' lovely. 
But the Civil War had left its blight, and some of the 
stately old Southern homes had been burned down, 
others were crumbling to ruin, long rows of negro 
cabins were empty while the broad plantations, 
once covered with the snowy cotton or rustling with 
the golden-tasseled corn, were now washed in great 
gullies or waved with the melancholy yellow sedge, 
and sighed with the young groves of pine that steadily 
usurped their way over the once cultivated fields. 

It was curious and pathetic to see families that 
once rolled in wealth and luxury coming to the little 
dilapidated church in town in faded, broken-down old 
family coaches, or oftener still in two-horse wagons, 
with the most primitive kind of harness in the shape 
of shuck collars, and bridles and reins of rope. 

It was in this sleepy-looking village that the life 
history took place which we have described in "Re- 
markable Occurrences" in the chapter called "The 
Two Letters." 

The second Sabbath found me approaching the 
church, which, with its belfry, pillars in front, and 
evergreen trees and shrubbery, looked well enough 
from a distance; but a nearer view revealed the front 
gate prostrate for lack of a single hinge, the beautiful 
lot upturned in every direction by the snouts of enter- 
prising swine, the paint on the Vv^alls in a final stage 
of departure, broad sheets of plastering fallen from 



The; First Circuit. 



113 



the ceiling-, while fully twenty panes of glass had been 
broken out of the windows. 

It was a bitterly cold day, and the wind whistled 
keenly through the riddled sash and scurried all over 
the building. Seven men had gathered in answer to 
the ringing of the bell to hear the new preacher, or 
rather to see who he was, for not one expected that 
regular service would be held. 

So when I entered the pulpit, read and sung an 
opening hymn, knelt down and prayed, and then after 
a second hymn, which was altogether a solo, proceeded 
to take the text and commence preaching, there were 
seven astonished spectators, and not one delighted 
auditor in the freezing sanctuary. 

All of them were wrapped in overcoats with collars 
pulled up high over their heads so as to look like visors. 
Hence we had seven concealed faces, but fourteen 
eyes peering out of shadowy retreats in a not very 
inspiring way as I strove under the circumstances to' 
deliver my first message. 

Brother K , one of the seven attendants upon 

service that morning, was a steward and leading mem- 
ber of the church. He distinguished himself on this 
occasion not only by hiding more of himself in his 
overcoat than did the others, but drew up his feet on 
the bench, and, I think, sat on them. The position 
was not conducive to seriousness upon the part of 
beholders, but the preacher was too much in earnest 



114 



Graphic Scene:s. 



to be affected by the spectacle, and the remaining six 
brethren were too cold to notice anything but the fog 
which came up in clouds from their mouths and nos- 
trils. 

The text was John 9 : 4, "I must work the works 
of him that sent me while it is day ; the night cometh 
when no man can work." I spoke about thirty-five 
or forty minutes. The only sound in the building was 
the voice of the preacher which at the beginning shook 
fearfully with cold, the sweep of the wind through 
the broken panes, and the rustle of a few scattered 
leaves of hymn books on the dirty floor. 

I finished the sermon, offered up a short prayer, 
sung the doxology alone, pronounced the benediction, 
and came down from the pulpit to receive introduc- 
tions, if not congratulations. Six of my auditors 
gazed wonderingly, and I rather think unutterably, 
upon me, and hurried away to distant home fires. 

But Bro. K , the leading man of the Httle church, 

walked up to me, stiff, erect and dignified, and said, 
in the most aggrieved and injured of tones, as I 
reached out my hand to give a cordial grasp : 

"If any of us contract pneumonia from the cold to 
which you have exposed us for nearly an hour, you 
will have to be responsible for the results of sickness, 
expense, and possibly death." 

This was my first greeting in appointment number 
two. 



Th^ First Circuit. 



115 



Among the famous seven of that morning was Bro. 
W , a steward and trustee, whose exact counter- 
part I have never beheld before or since. One 
remarkable trait of the man was his instantaneous 
acceptance of any kind of reproof or blame. Saying 
to him one day that I thought the congregation owed 
it to themselves, the community and to Christ to repair 
the broken windows, that the cost would be a trifle, 
anyhow, his reply was : 

"Yes, Bro. Carradine, I know it ought to be done, 
and should have been attended to a long while ago. 
But we are a sorry lot of people here, and have not 
done it. The fact is, there is not one of us worth 
killing." 

On another occasion, when I pointed out the advis- 
ability of the church gate having a new hinge, that 
the hogs might be kept out of the yard and from under 
the building, he said: "Yes, we have thought of it; 
but the fact is, we are a very neglectful, postponing 
kind of people; and all of us put together are not 
worth killing." 

Such a reply as that made further speeches and 
judgments simply impossible. He confessed to guilt 
in the prisoners' dock, and, instead of asking for 
mercy, requested instant execution. He even seemed 
willing to adjust the noose to his neck and spring the 
trapdoor. 

Moreover, there is an old saying about not striking 



ii6 



Graphic Sci:ne;s. 



a fallen man, and here he was, not only prostrate, but 
he had voluntarily gotten down. It was hiipossible 
to strike him. He reminded me of an old dog that for 
years was a dependant and pensioner at the home of 
my childhood. The poor brute had been struck so 
often by the colored people, and received so many 
blows from careless and cruel individuals whom he 
met in the way, that whenever anybody came near him 
with kind, unkind or no intentions' at all, with a stick 
or no stick, over he would go on his back, throw his 
four legs in the air and give vent to the most pitiful 
of howls. He never waited to be knocked down but 
got down himself. 

Bro. W continually brought this inwardly 

whipped out and outwardly life defeated old canine 
to my recollection. I had only to make the faintest 
approach to a criticism, protest or reproof ; utter some 
statement of what ought or ought not to be done, 
when here would come the old speech: "I know it — 
but we are not worth killing," and my spirit-subdued 
friend metaphorically would be on his back, while his 
legs, figuratively speaking, would be pointing in the 
air. 

Of course I projected and in due time undertook 
a protracted meeting for Vernon. Feeling my own 
incompetency and inexperience, I was careful to secure 
a promise from a station preacher in the Conference 
to come and do the preaching. But through sickness 



Th^ First Circuit. 



in his family he was prevented; and for days Sister 
Annie in the tower never looked more anxiously for 
a cloud of dust down the road than I did for a sign 
of the approach of my pulpit help. 

He never came, and here was a big congregation 
day and night on my hands, a deep interest springing 
up, while the four or five sermons I had saved up were 
preached out and up. There was nothing left me but 
that unfailing resource of the circuit preacher, viz., 
the woods. So, Bible in hand, I made for the deepest 
thickets and stretched out on my face for hours under 
the big sighing trees of the woodland, begged the ' 
Savior to help me in my great need. 

And He did help. Intellectually and sermonically 
considered, I doubt not that the discourses' delivered 
for the rest of the two weeks of the meeting were 
ordinary indeed. But Jesus blessed them, and they 
were saturated with prayer, baptized with tears, and 
delivered with absolute dependence on the Holy Ghost. 

So the Spirit of God blessed the feeble instrument, 
honored the Word, came down with power on the 
people, and the town and community witnessed the 
greatest revival that had ever been known in all their 
previous history. 

Among the many results of the meeting was the 
conversion and accession to the church of over twenty 
young girls, between the ages of twelve and sixteen, 
who were the daughters of Southern planters in the 



ii8 



Graphic Sce:ni:s. 



neighborhood. One of them was Belle Kearney, the 
acknowledged Frances Willard of the South. 

A lady belonging to one of the oldest and most 
prominent Southern families in the country was 
powerfully converted, and shouted so that people who 
were one mile distant heard her rapturous cries. 

Of course, all the window panes were attended to, 
the plastering restored to the ceiling, the hogs were 
driven out, the hinge put on the gate, and the little 
cedar-dotted churchyard made as beautiful as of yore. 

The brother who said so often that he, with others', 
was not worth killing, received an overwhelming bless- 
ing, under which he so laughed, wept, shouted, clapped 
his hands and fell on the floor that it looked to a good 
many of us that the long-expected, much-talked-of 
killing had come at last. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



A Tuning Fork — A Strange Te:xT — A Gi^nierous 
G^ntii^e; — A Kind J^w. 

There were two minor Sunday afternoon appoint- 
ments on my first circuit, where but a handful of peo- 
ple gathered in a schoolhouse, and I did the best I 
could without pulpit, platform, pew and church organ. 
The hymns at these places were first read and then 
'lined," as it is called, and then some lay brother was 
formally requested to ''Raise the tune." 

Very often the brother raised anything but a 
melody, and would sit down with embarrassment and 
failure written on every feature of his labor-becrim- 
soned countenance. 

At one of these side appointments I made my 
first acquaintance with what is termed a tuning fork 
The young man who manipulated this interesting mus- 
ical invention was as proud and conscious of it as an 
officer of his sword or a soldier of his plume. With 
the announcement of the hymn being turned over to 
his tender mercies, there would be a sudden rap like 
a hammer on one of the benches, a metallic buzzing 
sound would fill the air, followed immediately by a 

119 



I20 



Graphic Sci^nds. 



nasal humming noise produced by the young man as 
he feh, so to speak, for the note, and then there would 
be a sudden blurting forth of "Arlington," "Dundee" 
or "Hebron" in such a startling way as to destroy 
the gravity that had been left in the audience under 
the combined attack of the metal hammer and the nos- 
trilized voice. 

At the other small appointment, a Bro. A 

"raised the tune." In all the twelve services of the 
year in that place I never knew our song leader to 
make a success of the matter. He was a timid and 
easily excited man, and when the request was given 
that he would vocally lift the melody his very anxiety 
and nerve-wrought condition conspired against his 
voice so that he invariably pitched the hymn so high 
that no one dared to follow him. In the second effort 
being sadly mindful of the skyscraping notes of the 
first performance, he naturally fell into the opposite 
error, and started the hymn in such low notes that it 
sounded like a dirge and seemed to come from his 
yery boots. 

Nevertheless, in spite of these backsets and trials 
in their way, the Gospel I preached went straight to 
human hearts and a number of bright conversions took 
place at both of these appointments. 

I added two church buildings to the real estate of 
the Methodist church in the first year of my ministry. 

Most of the money given to build one of these 



A Tuning Fork. 



121 



chapels was contributed by a rich man who was said 
by all the community to be a great sinner. The 
report did not keep me from calling on him in his 
beautiful country home, as I read in the Bible I 
preached, that the Lord went among and ate with 
publicans and sinners. I read also that by doing this 
he saved many. 

The first time I met Mr. L I felt strangely 

drawn to him. There was a feeling that away down 
in the mud of this irreligious, neglected life was what 
under the blessing of God would become a diamond 
of grace, a gem of the first water. 

On expressing my regret that there was no church 
in all this beautiful district of country, and how desir- 
ous I was' of seeing one erected, Mr. Lf said, 

quickly : 'Tut me down five hundred dollars." 

How little either of us dreamed what this act 
meant for him. He had in a very wicked life taken 
millions of steps away from Heaven and towards 
Hell. A momentous hour had come to him. An 
epoch had arrived. He had turned and made his first 
movement toward God and a better life. 

The second step soon followed, in the words, "I 
will go with you through the neighborhood and see 
where we can obtain an addition to my gift." That 
afternoon, through his introductions and great influ- 
ence, I received five hundred dollars more. With 
that we began, and lumber was ordered and carpenters 



122 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



engaged. Mr. took still another step in donat- 
ing the land, and another advance still in seeing that 
the lot was in a central place, easy of access to the 
majority of dwellers in that section of country. 

I watched with deepest pleasure the ever-growing 
interest of this "sinner," as men called him, in this 
new work of God. He loaned his wagons and hired 
men to haul the plank, shingles, nails and tools to the 
site of the building. He gave hours of his valuable 
time to a very necessary supervision of the under- 
taking. The structure cost a thousand dollars more 

than was at first expected. Mr. L paid this 

additional sum. A strange new light began to come 
in his face. His voice dropped much of its gruf¥ness. 
At home he was observed to be gentler and 
kinder to his wife and children and servants. 

At the dedication of the church he was seen to 
be in tears. At a protracted meeting held soon after- 
ward in the church he was soundly converted to God. 
A few years later he died in great peace and went 
home to Heaven. Doubtless in the world of sweet 
and just reward he belongs to that division of the 
redeemed of whom it is said of each individual, "He 
loveth our nation, and hath built us a synagogue." 

Judging from the outcome of this piece of life 
history it seems to be a wise and excellent thing to 
get people tangled up in a good work for the Lord. 

In the dedication, to which reference has been 



A Tuning Fork. 



123 



made, it was thought best, as the pastor was so young 
and inexperienced, to secure a prominent and distin- 
guished preacher to deliver the dedicatory discourse 
and take charge of the service of that hour. The 
pastor was to follow in the evening with a sermon 
suitable to a mixed crowd. All this was right enough, 
but unfortunately when the widely advertised day and 
occasion arrived the big preacher was not on hand. 
His many duties as a college president and presiding 
elder combined had prevented his attendance. Here 
was a vast crowd on the ground and filling the church, 
and the speaker of the hour not present, but a hasty 
message instead, regretting the unavoidable absence. 

Of course there was nothing to be done but for 
me, the young pastor, to take the place of the promi- 
nent official. I had one sermon on hand, or rather in 
my head. The subject was, "The Barren Fig Tree." 
I felt that it was hardly an appropriate topic at such 
a time ; but in those days a sermon was no little thing 
to get up. It cost no little mental as well as spiritual 
toil to properly divide and subdivide the text and 
rightly unfold and enforce the truth. So it was this 
sermon with me or none. Besides this, the building 
committee and trustees said I was the only man they 
could call on to meet the duty of the hour, and, going 
down under this last appeal, I walked tremblingly into 
the pulpit and faced a house packed with well-dressed 
people, while another crowd surged on the outside, 
unable to get in. 



124 



Graphic Sce:ne:s. 



My text was, "Behold these three years I come 
seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none! Cut 
it down! Why cumbereth it the ground?" 

I have never mentioned this occasion and my text 
to preachers since that hour without their bursting 
into a fit of laughter. Here these good people had 
just built a church and were starting forth with it 
and its services and works on a better life, when they, 
were greeted with the startling words from the pulpit : 
"Cut it down! Why cumbereth it the ground?" 

And yet it was under this sermon that Mr. L 

was seen weeping. He doubtless saw a picture of his 
own previous barren and unprofitable life. Others 
did with him, and the same day I had an altar service 
and witnessed five clear cases of conversion and 
reclamation. 

The first year of my ministry, while blessed in 
the salvation of several hundred souls, was an exceed- 
ingly trying one in a financial way. I was compelled 
to live in a town out of the boundaries of the circuit, 
so that a number of good people belonging to the 
charge did not know of the privations of their pastor. 
Then it was a new work and not yet organized and 
drilled in methods well known to the older appoint- 
ments of an annual conference. 

Hence it was that we suffered for the necessaries 
of life. Meat for months was a luxury indeed. 
Many days the preacher, his young wife and two chil- 



A Tuning Fork. 



125 



dren lived on bread and molasses. There was a day 
when we only had bread. And still another sad, dark 
day when we did not even have bread. A temporary 
relief for several days came most remarkably from 
the hands of a country boy. A knock sounded on the 
door while I was on my knees. Going tO' the front, I 
found a sun-browned lad of eighteen, who told me 
with great awkwardness of manner, but equal earnest- 
ness and kindness of spirit, that my preaching had 
done him good and he wanted to give me four dollars. 
His eyes filled as he spoke, and my own gushed with 
tears at the simple, loving, beautiful act. The sky 
was dropping rain at the time, and so we all three 
stood crying together. 

In the midst of this trying period a full-blooded 
Jew who owned a farm in the country and ran a mar- 
ket in town heard incidentally of my need. He at 
once ordered the deliverer of his goods to leave me 
two good beefsteaks every day for the balance of the 
year. The account finally amounted to seventy dol- 
lars, but this man would never receive a single cent of 
compensation. He seemed reluctant even to accept 
the thanks which the grateful preacher offered. In 
reply he waved me off, and said, with a smile: "I 
have done nothing worth mentioning.'' 

I was afterwards informed that this man had 
raised and started in life not less than twelve orphan 
children. So he was not a stranger to the doing of 



126 



Graphic Sceni^s. 



good deeds. His kindness to the preacher was far 
from being his first act of generosity. 

One day this Jew was standing in his yard, when 
a negro man who had become angry with him over 
a trifle crept up behind his unsuspecting victim and 
split his head open with an axe. 

The awful occurrence not only distressed me 
greatly, but greatly staggered my faith as well as I 
tried to reconcile it with certain statements of Scrip- 
ture and with the providence of a just, good, overrul- 
ing God who has all power in Heaven and also on 
earth. I had finally to leave this problem, with many 
others, in the hands of the Faithful One who has 
promised to explain all things and make every thing 
clear on the day of judgment. 

Meanwhile I remember that the Judge of that 
day was a Jew. And that He said when on earth 
that a cup of cold water given to one of his servants 
should never lose its reward. So I can but trust that 
all will be well with my Israelite friend in the day when 
time ends and eternity begins. How sweet it would 
be to me to hear Jesus say to him, "I was hungry, and 
ye gave me meat." And as the man in his humility 
and modesty replies, 'Xord, when saw we thee an 
hungered?" Oh, how glad I will be to hear the 
Savior answer, "Verily I s'ay unto you, inasmuch as 
you have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, you have done it unto me." 



CHAPTER XV. 



Inti:re:sting Characte^rs. 

From the youngest and weakest Mission of tHe 
Conference, I was sent by the bishop at the close of 
the first year to one of the oldest and strongest among 
the Circuits. 

My second work consisted of two small towns 
separated by a distance of eight miles, and connected 
by a broad, smooth highway running through a con- 
tinuous stretch of Southern plantations, each one orna- 
mented by a lovely grove from which could be partially 
seen the porticoed and pillared old-time Southern 
home. 

It was on this road, and several miles from one 
of these towns, that occurred the incident which years 
later brought forth one of my productions called "A 
Churchyard Story." A sudden storm of wind and 
rain drove me for shelter to a ruinous Gothic church, 
where from a broken window I beheld as described the 
strange-looking tomb in the graveyard. 

This monument, with a couple of facts belonging 
to the neighborhood history, formed the foundation 
of the volume edifice which I constructed some twenty 
years afterward. 

127 



128 



Graphic Sc^ni:s. 



In this year's work I was blessed with revivals at 
both of the principal charges, had a handsome new 
Methodist church built in a beautiful but neglected 
neighborhood, held a protracted meeting after the 
dedication of the building, and witnessed there a 
blessed revival. 

I was much helped and benefitted in this second 
year's pastorate by the presence and labors of the pre- 
siding elder. He gave me weeks of his valuable time, 
and I have never ceased to be grateful for the strength, 
comfort and inspiration received through the com- 
panionship of those days. 

This presiding elder, Bro. H , was one of the 

most devout men I ever knew. He was not a sancti- 
fied man, for the doctrine was not preached in our 
conference at that time; but he was walking in all 
the light he had and was a mighty man of God. He 
was one of the few men I have known who seemed 
to be actually saturated with a spirit of prayer. I 
am confident that he spent four hours every day on 
his knees. His face was lustrous, and nearly always 
had a glad, pure light resting upon it. He talked to 
everybody about their soul's salvation; held family 
prayer in each home he visited ; pulled the fire out of 
the skies in his pulpit petitions, and was always signally 
honored by the Spirit of God when he stood up to 
preach. 

And yet, strong as was this man, I have seen him 



Interesting Characters. 129 



fail at times. The ''Old Man" may be kept down for 
long periods by just such a beautiful and useful life as 
this preacher lived, but he has a way of coming forth 
suddenly at most unexpected and undersirable times 
and occasions. 

Bro. H was assisting me in a series of services 

held at the new church. It was a hard community, 
and the congregation slow to yield. This doubtless 
affected our good brother, and he started in one of 
the night services in something of a crabbed spirit. 
The man was jaded from the pastoral work of the 
day, which duty had led us to visit, talk and pray with 
many stolid and stubborn households. Then the night 
was warm and the congregation disposed to be inat- 
tentive and disorderly. Moreover, the brother had in 
the duties and calls of the day been prevented from his 
usual hours of private prayer and the consequent 
reception of grace sufficient to keep the "Old Man" 
down and still. 

In addition, he made the mistake of taking at 
such a time and in such a condition a sad and severe 
text. His opening words were harsh, and there was 
the pop of a whip in his voice. It sounded as the 
sermon proceeded as if he were glad that there was 
a Hell; and especially pleased that some people before 
him were going to that world of despair. 

When he concluded the discourse and invited 
penitents, no one came. Nor would the audience 



130 



Graphic Sc^nds. 



respond to any kind of proposition. He then told 
them that their destruction and damnation was on 
their own head; and that he cleared his skirts and 
shook the dust off his feet. 

After thus figuratively giving- the people up, the 
preacher, now evidently angry, attempted to sit on 
the broad altar that ran around the chancel, but missed 
it, and fell with a crash on the floor. 

There were some rude bursts of laughter and a 
great deal of suppressed amusement in the congrega- 
tion, while the discomfitted man arose from the floor 
and said in a low tone to two sad-hearted ministers 
sitting near: ''It looks like the devil has got into 
everything to-night." 

Perhaps he had. Perhaps it was not the devil at 
all. It may have been the ''Old Man" in one of his 
outings or on one of his rampages after weeks of 
suppression. He liad broken jail for a couple of 
hours. 

Dear man of God! he spent not less than two 
hours on his knee-s that night after service; rounded 
up the "Old Man" so to speak ; got the escaped captive 
back in the guard house ; and watched him so diligently 
that for the rest of the year no one obtained a single 
glimpse of the prisoner through the barred door of 
the mouth or the grated window of the eye. 

In connection with my two leading appointments 
I had attached to the circuit an old weather-beaten, 



Interesting Characters. 131 



moss-covered church on Pearl River. The building 
threw its shadow over a graveyard that was more 
ancient than itself. It was a neighborhood burial 
ground, and under the towering forest trees which 
filled the inclosure the graves of entire households 
stretched in grassy hillocks on all sides. 

I came but once a month to this ancient churchj 
and then on a Sunday afternoon. But I hardly ever 
met this appointment without visiting a lowly, 
unmarked mound near the foot of an old sighing pine 
tree. 4^ 

It was the grave of a Methodist preacher, who 
was one of the holiest men I ever knew. He died at 
the age of thirty-five or six. 

When I was a lad of nine or ten, this man was my 
mother's pastor. His holy, shining face and Chris- 
tian life had not only forced themselves on the recog- 
nition of the boy, but had deeply impressed him as 
well. Very genuine was the sorrow of this same 

child when he heard that the Rev. Mr. L had been 

sent away by the bishop and conference to another 
and distant charge. It was only a few years after- 
wards when we all heard of his death, and now, after 
the flight of other years, here I stood as a minister of 
the Gospel at the foot of this preacher's grave. 

Another part of the man's history had come to 
me since I had entered the ministry, which added a 
most painful and mournful interest as I silently looked 



132 



Graphic ScE;Ni:s. 



down at the sod which covered the sweet, gentle, 
Christlike face I had known in childhood. 

He had been very unhappily married. His wife 
was a scold and termagant. She even resorted to 
physical violence, slapping his face and tearing his 
hair. He never resented the mistreatment, and never 
breathed a word to a living soul about his wrongs 
and sufferings. It was found out through servants 
and certain members of the family. His manner, in 
spite of the hell on earth in which he lived, was always 
unruffled. His face continually wore the sweet, 
patient expression and gentle, holy look that impressed 
all who knew him, and became an unfading recollec- 
tion even with a little boy. 

His pet name for his wife was "Dove." I often 
heard him call her by this term; and yet she was a 
"Hawk," and tore at his heartstrings' and happiness 
all their wedded life of nine years. At last God in 
his mercy took him from his earthly sufferings, and 
the man was delivered forever from the ill-sorted and 
monstrous companionship which had turned his 
domestic peace into an existence of misery, and made 
his life one long, bitter crucifixion.. 

I thought of all this' as I looked down at the lowly 
grave under the pine tree. I also recalled the fact 
that the first profound religious impressions I ever 
experienced in early life came from this man. 

My mother had taken me to the class meeting led 



Inte^re^sting Characters. 



133 



by this preacher. After all the older ones had testi- 
fied, he turned to the one child in the small audience 
and said, with a sweet, gentle smile: ''My dear little 
boy, have you anything to say?" My instant reply 
was : 

"I am a great sinner," and burst into tears. I 
never forgot the hour nor the impression. 

Does anyone wonder that I knelt down on the 
grass by the grave of this good man and thanked God 
for his life and influence over me, and also rejoiced 
that he was now at rest from a life of torment, and 
was living with God ? 

It was only a few months after my first visit to the 
grave that I attended a large camp-meeting in my na- 
tive State. One day between services a frail-bodied, 
haggard-faced, wretched-looking woman approached 
me, extended her hand and said : "I knew you when 
you were a boy; do you remember me?" 

I confessed ignorance, and was shocked almost 
beyond utterance when she informed me who she was. 

She was Mrs. L , the wife of the preacher whose 

grave I had visited in the old church yard. But a 
greater physical change I could scarcely have 
imagined. I had last seen her as a young, pretty 
woman, and abloom with health. At this time I beheld 
an emaciated form and one of the saddest countenances 
I ever beheld. She had married again after the death 
of her husband, and wedded a man who was as wicked 



134 



Graphic Scs^n^s. 



as her first consort had been good. He had lirolcen 
her heart and utterly crushed and subdued her spirit. 
He treated her with physical violence and cruelty. 
A gentleman informed me afterwards that he regularly 
cowhided her. She told me that he slapped her face, 
tore her hair and beat her with his fists ! 

I grieved, of course, over the pitiful narration, 
and yet marvelled at the same time over the amazrrig 
retribution that had come into her life. As she had 
treated her husband she was now being exactly and 
identically served herself, with a horrible interest and 
addition on the capital of her iniquity. 

One of the last things she said to me in this brief 
interview was in reference to the man who was slum- 
bering in the old graveyard on Pearl river. She sob- 
bed as she wiped away the fast-falling tears and said : 

*'If ever a woman had an angel for a husband, I 
was that woman, and had one in Mr. L 

I thought, as I turned away. Yes, and as the Bible 
teaches us, if ever a person entertained an angel una- 
wares, it was the individual before me. Like many 
others, she had a white-winged mercy in her home, 
and seemed to regard it not, and even to know it not, 
until suddenly it flashed away from her side and its 
form disappeared forever in the skies. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



A Group Pri:ache;rs. 

The annual conference which sent me to my second 
work was held in Canton, Miss., and presided over 
by Bishop E. M. Marvin. 

As no church could hold the audience that desired 
to hear such a man, the theater was secured, and this 
was packed to every wall. The stage and a small 
table in the center constituted the spacious pulpit. 
The speaker of the hour in preaching would quietly^ 
pace from one side to the other of the great platform, 
often taking up the large pulpit Bible that rested on 
the stand and walking around with it held up by his 
arms and clasped to his breast. I never saw a man 
handle the sacred volume as tenderly, reverently and 
impressively as did this preacher. 

He stood up that day amid a group of mighty 
men of the pulpit, such as W. L. Einfield, H. F. 
Johnson, Linus Parker and others, who were church 
editors, presiding elders and college presidents; but 
he was a giant among giants. 

His discourse that morning was his famous sermon 
on Christ and the Church. As he traced in his felicit- 

135 



136 



Graphic Sce:ni:s. 



ous and unctuous language the analogy between 
husband and wife and the Savior and his bride, the 
faces of hundreds were wet with tears and the mighty 
congregation moved most profoundly. And when he 
came to picture a devoted husband toiling in distant 
fields and enduring every hardship to keep his wife 
in ease and comfort in a home he had furnished for 
her, and that wife false and faithless to him, no lan- 
guage could describe the disgust and loathing that 
appeared literally stamped on every face bent upon 
the wonderful speaker. His application of a church 
committing adultery with the world, while Christ, the 
husband, was far away, preparing a mansion for her, 
and remitting her great checks of love and grace and 
doing everything for her comfort and happiness — was 
simply overwhelming. We saw horror on every face ; 
and we do not doubt that every Christian man went 
out from the building with a profounder tenderness 
for his wife, if she was a good one, and a conception 
such as he never had before of the utter blackness of 
heart of a faithless wife and a false Christian. 

I was well acquainted with many people in the 
town, and as I walked along the street heard the 
highest encomiums upon the bishop's sermon. There 
was a single exception. The criticism fell from the 
lips of a handsomely dressed woman just in front of 
me. She said: 

"It was the most disgusting sermon I ever heard. 



A Group oi^ Pri:ach^rs. 



I would never hear him preach again for any consid- 
eration." 

Does the reader wonder at this speech? Then 
Hsten. I had heard a dozen men at least say that 
during the Civil War this woman's husband was a 
gallant officer at the front; and that such was her 
faithlessness to him in his absence that when he 
returned home and discovered it, he drank himself 
into the grave. 

Thus early in the ministry I learned why people 
hate some preachers and strike venomously at certain 
sermons. They themselves have been wounded by the 
verbal sword of God's messeger. Jezebel has had a 
visit from Elijah. Another John the Baptist has 
spoken to Herod and his wife and told them they were 
great sinners. Sin has been discovered and uncov- 
ered. The smitten canine gives an angry yelp. And 
as the Georgia evangelist puts the matter in homely 
language, "If you are not hit, what makes you holler?" 

During the conference session services were held 
every afternoon at three o'clock in the church, and 
clerical lights of greater or lesser luster shone upon 
the audience from the pulpit. 

To me many things about the Conference were 
still new, and the hearing of preaching was quite a 
luxury, so that I did not miss a single one of these 
means of grace. 

One afternoon my expectation was unusually high, 



138 



Graphic Scj:ne:s. 



as the preacher of the hour wore a beaver hat and 
what is called the regulation clergyman's suit. Sitting 
by the side of a gifted ministerial friend, I prepared 
for an intellectual and spiritual banquet. The result 
w^as not what I expected, and so I walked away at the 
conclusion of the services in a kind of mentally dazed 
condition. 

As for the text, I cannot recall it. Such was the 
rambling nature of the pulpit deliverance that any 
text would have done as well as the one he selected. 
The good brother, with much vociferation, fist-pound- 
ing and perspiration, covered everything. It was 
hard to see what he was so excited about, for I can- 
not remember a single point he made from beginning 
to end. 

As I went down the street by the side of our grave 
friend, the abiding greenness of the younger man was 
still seen in the questions I propounded in perfect 
innocency of heart to the older minister. 

''Why did the preacher this afternoon put the word 
*old' before the names of the patriarchs and prophets, 
calling them 'Old Abraham, 'Old Jacob,' 'Old Elijah,' 
and 'Old Malachi?' The Bible has no such prefixes. 
God did not call his servants by such titles." 

Our friend answered : 

"He did it because he belongs to a class of people 
who seem to lack a certain nice sense of the pro- 
prieties, and of the fitness of things." 



A Group of* Preachers. 



139 



"But why," I pursued, "did he say the father o£ 
the prodigal son was sitting on the front porch look- 
ing through his spectacles down the road for his boy, 
when glass had not been discovered at that time, and 
spectacles are a recent invention?" 

"It is very likely," answered the preacher, "that 
he did not know any better himself, and, if he did, 
he preaches to a class of people who prefer the picture 
just as he drew it." 

"But," I rejoined, "he called the prodigal son 
Jake ; why should he take such a liberty as that ?" 

The older preacher laughed and said : "I once 
asked him that very question; and his composed and 
triumphant reply was that the boy's name might as 
well be Jake as anything else." 

One night Dr. Linfield, one of the greatest 
preachers of Mississippi, filled the pulpit. Whenever 
it was known that he was to preach, the church could 
not hold the people. He was a heavily-built, square- 
faced, beetle-browed man, with complexion somewhat 
florid and hair black and disposed to be stiff and brist- 
ling. But the towering mind and matchless tongue 
speedily made everyone forget the homely face and 
the somewhat cumbersome body. With his first sen- 
tence he always secured instant and profound atten- 
tion, and then for one hour and quarter would hold 
the audience spell-bound. When five minutes before 
concluding, he would close the pulpit Bible, there 



Graphic Sci:nj:s. 



would be invariably a feeling of regret by the congre- 
gation, and I have frequently heard a sigh at such 
times over the house that plainly meant that everybody 
wished he would go on. 

A verse taken by him in the Scripture for a text 
would be so marvellously opened up by him that it 
could never resume a commonplace setting or remain 
with its former ordinary meaning. He took it up a 
rosebud, and, separating and opening leaf after leaf 
and petal after petal of thought and hidden meaning, 
left a full-blown fiower in our possession. ^ 

I beheld him that night, and often afterwards, 
with his eyes burning with an inward spiritual fire, 
his great voice trembling with emotion, while his lips 
poured forth in the choicest and happiest language a 
perfect tide of Gospel eloquence and power. 

Repeatedly I believe the audience would have 
leaped to their feet with shouts and cries, but the peo- 
ple were unwilling to lose a single utterance of the 
transfigured man, and so remained breathless in their 
seats. Then the ponderous thought and massive man- 
ner of the preacher held the congregation down. The 
solemn face, grave though often impassioned tone, the 
stately dignified tread and the occasionally uplifted 
hand, agreed well with the noble, mighty and ever- 
lasting truths that were being delivered. 

After hearing Dr. Linfield preach, the text he 
used, as before said, would ever after appear in a man- 



A Group oi^ Prejachers. 141 



ner luminous and attractive when met in Scripture 
reading, or heard quoted by other lips from the sacred 
desk. The wonderful man stamped it in lines of light 
on the hearer's mind in the most unforgettable charac- 
ter. 

In fact, his sermons so powerfully impressed .a 
number of preachers that they took them bodily away 
and reproduced them in their several circuits and sta- 
tions as their own sparkling, flashing and valuable 
property. 

This naturally led to embarrassing situations. 
One was that these same purloining brethren were 
afraid to invite the doctor to preach in their charges 
lest he should handle one of the very discourses they 
had paraded as their own. 

A second trying situation was when Dr. Linfield 
would appear at one of the two great camp grounds 
of the conference. This occasioned quite a flutter 
more than once among the plagiaristic gentlemen of 
the cloth. 

Once at the Seashore Camp Ground, and only a 
few minutes after Dr. Linfield's arrival, a preacher 
took him aside, and in a most earnest and anxious 
manner said: "Doctor, when the committee asks you 
to fill the pulpit, please, sir, do not preach your ser- 
mon on Ephraim, or the one on Jacob, for I have 
used them both on my charge, and a number of my 



142 



Graphic Sci:ni:s. 



people are on the ground, and you can imagine how 
I would feel. It would ruin me." 

Dr. Linfield, with deep, suppressed amusement, 
promised the alarmed brother that he would cut the 
acquaintance of Jacob and Ephraim, at least at this 
camp-meeting, and walked away. In less than half 
an hour two other ministers on the ground, with the 
same disturbed countenances, preferred a similar 
request, for the identical reason^ only the sermons they 
desired restricted were different. One was on the 
Crucifixion, and the other from the text in Hebrews, 
''For here have we no continuing city, but we seek 
one to come." 

Again the preacher made promise, though the 
lines of mirth were steadily deepening on his face. 
Finally, however, when not less than two others of 
his conference brethren took him mysteriously aside, 
and one after the other asked for the same favor to 
be shown to them, and all unknowing that others had 
preceded them, the doctor burst forth in his great, 
hearty laugh, and said^ while he wiped the tears of 
merriment from his eyes : 

''Certainly I will grant your request; but will you 
tell me what on the face of the earth you and the 
other brethren have left me to preach about?" 

Of course the great preacher was in no such intel- 
lectual and sermonic bankrupt condition as his words 
might indicate to the uninitiated. His was a mind 



A Group oi^ Pr^ache^rs. 143 



factory that had a thousand whirling spindles of 
thought. So while the famous discourses on "J^cob," 
"Ephraim," "The Crucifixion/' "The Continuing 
City," "A Wounded Spirit" and "The Bruised Reed" 
were not delivered, yet equally wonderful sermons 
were preached by him, which thrilled and blessed the 
great multitude of worshippers by the seaside, and 
not a single one felt there was lack anywhere in this 
gifted and faithful servant of Heaven. 

JVLeanwhile the jackdaw brethren returned to their 
several circuits and stations unstripped of their bor- 
rowed plumes, and so continue to be regarded as great 
in the eyes of their people. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



TriaIvS and Sorrows. 

It was in this year that as a household we had 
the unenviable experience of being robbed or burglar- 
ized. The shocked sensation still remains as a vivid 
memory, when I was informed very early Sunday 
morning by a startled member of the family that 
thieves had visited every room in the house and had 
taken something from everybody. 

Springing from bed, I found my clothes gone. 
Looking out of the window, I saw coat, vest and pan- 
taloons stretched on the ground in the most grotesque 
and absurd positions. In one pocket of the waistecoat 
I had five dollars, in another I carried a New Testa- 
ment. The thief or thieves took the money, but left 
the Bible in the dust by the rejected suit. The clothed 
would have betrayed them, and the little book contain- 
ing their doom as transgressors condemned tliem. 

Everything in the larder had been previously cooked 
and prepared on Saturday for the Sabbath. Our night 
visitors swept the entire store away and left us with- 
out a mouthful of anything. 

The news spread rapidly through the village that we 
144 



Trials and Sorrows. 



145 



had been robbed of every cent of money, and that the 
storeroom had been emptied as well. The fact was 
that there was nothing in the storeroom, and it was 
the dining-room which had been stripped; and so I 
told all our friends and acquaintances. I also inform- 
ed them that the currency loss was only five dollars, 
and even that did not belong to me. 

But all I said was of no avail; the people were 
aroused, indignant, sympathetic and generously dis- 
posed, so that a perfect stream of provisions poured 
into our astonished little larder. It was the first time 
since I had been a preacher that I had seen a whole 
barrel of flour, keg of lard, box of cheese, kit of 
mackerel, sack of potatoes and a dozen hams, all at 
once, in our pantry. Then there were many other 
things besides. And as for the money, in spite of 
all our information and protestation on the subject, 
no less than three five-dollar bills were sent in to take 
the place of the one the thief abstracted. 

So good came out of it all. An empty store-room 
was resuppHed. The people got blessed in giving. 
We were blessed in receiving. And as for the thief, 
I forgave him freely as soon as the crime was com- 
mitted. Then when the provisions and money came 
in, I forgave him again still more freely; and I don't 
know but that I realized a really warm, affectionate 
feeling springing up in the heart for the poor fellow 
who had been unconsciously such a help and assist- 



146 



Graphic Sce:ne;s. 



ance to the family. Moreover, there have been times 
since when I could see very plainly indeed a most 
pressing need for his benevolent services again. 

However, let no Ladies' Aid Society apply to me 
for this man's name and address. I did not see him 
that night, and would not know him if I met him. 
He has never visited our household again. Doubtless 
he was disgusted with the small haul he made on 
his first expedition. For all I know, the sight of a 
preacher's sideboard and kitchen led him to repentance 
and reformation. 

As the year advanced, trials and troubles mul- 
tiplied and intensified. I was advancing in knowledge 
and grace, getting stronger in the Christian life, and 
so difficulties, besetments, discouragements and oppo- 
sitions were allowed to increase in number and gather 
in force upon the ardent, devoted young preacher who 
still had so much to learn and so many things yet in 
the unborn future to endure. 

As I preached a clear, deep, uncompromising 
Gospel, even before I had heard of sanctification, 
human and Satanic hate sprang up and confronted 
me. Friends fell off. Grave spells of sickness 
attacked th-e young mother of the family. Repeatedly 
I would be summoned from pulpits here and there to 
wait upon her sick bed. Other sorrows swept in. 
And finally death itself entered the home and took 
away our little boy, whom we had named Ernest 



TRIAI.S AND Sorrows. 



147 



For a month the child made a desperate and most 
pathetic battle for his life. The preaching had to 
go on just the same as though I had no dying son in 
the house. 

Every night at one o'clock I had to leave his side 
and go to the woodpile for an armful of fuel to 
replenish the fire. At the very same hour a freight 
train would be struggling up a steep grade fully a 
mile away down the railroad. The throbbing of that 
mighty iron heart, the panting of that distant engine 
as, burdened and pulling a long line of loaded cars, it 
strove, struggled and all but fought its way up to the 
summit of the great, wearisome slope, I have never 
forgotten, and can never forget. 

This nightly occurrence peculiarly and powerfully 
appealed to me then, as, burdened in soul and life, I 
was drawing a heavy load up a wonderfully steep 
grade of trouble. It seemed at times as if I would 
certainly be dragged back to the bottom of the hill; 
that I could never get over the ever-rising summit of 
the life situation. And so my soul labored, agonized 
and fairly panted in its onward and upward course, 
and with a desperation that seemed to be voiced and 
declared by the lonely toiling engine far away in the 
night. 

Repeatedly I stood with the load of wood in my 
arms under the silent autumn stars and waited for 
the big Mogul to get its Victory, mount the ridge and 



148 



Graphic Sce;nks. 



comQ rolling towards the town. Then I would turn 
into the death chamber and toil up a steeper grade, 
and climb a more heart-breaking hill, the top of 
which was so distant that it could not be seen. 

The memory of those nocturnal hours still abides, 
and still appeals to the heart after the flight of over 
thirty years. To this day I never hear a freight train 
at night laboring up a difficult grade but instantly the 
mind reverts to the past, and the sad history of those 
weeks and months is lived all over again. 

I have pulled up many long, steep places since the 
time I have spoken about. The heart has ached and 
throbbed, the spirit panted, the lips called mightily 
on God, while the life struggled on with its load for 
the topmost height. 

Thus far I have gotten over many sad, hard places 
and left numberless hills between me and the old 
past. Doubtless many steep grades still remain to 
mount. And there is one swell in the ground, called 
a grave, which is waiting for us all to get over. But 
I have no question whatever in the mind that if we 
keep the flame of love and holiness burning in the 
soul which Christ lighted there years ago, we will all 
run up the last grade, cross the final hill, view the city 
of God as it bursts on the sight, and will rush with a 
shout of exultation and victory into the Union Depot 
of Everlasting I^ife and Glory. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



An Incide^nt and Its Li^ssons. 

While still on this circuit, I became acquainted 
with an old lady of seventy years of age who was not 
only devout, but surpassed in intelligence many of 
her country neighbors. On one of my pastoral calls 
she told me the circumstances that led to her conver- 
sion. 

She said that sixty years before she lived in a new 
settlement in one of the Middle States. At the hour 
of twilight one day she was sitting side by side with 
her brother of twelve and sister of eight years of 
age, watching the burning of a brush heap in front 
of their father's cabin home. 

After quite a period of silence, the boy remarked 
to his sisters: 

"How would you like to burn forever in a fire 
like that?"- 

Both of the girls quickly replied, expressing their 
horror and dread of such a fate. 

"But," the boy persisted, "they tell me if we die 
and go to Hell we will burn that way forever." 

There was an anxious silence for a while, and 
149 



Graphic Scenes. 



then the little ones fell to devising wa3^s and means to 
escape so frightful a punishment. The old question 
of the Philippian Jailer was in their hearts, ''What 
must I do to be saved?" 

At that time churches were widely scattered, 
preachers rarely came around, and hence the stock 
of religious knowledge possessed by these children 
was exceedingly small. Still they felt somehow that 
their relief and escape depended on prayer. Then 
followed, we may say, a rapid and troubled inventory 
of their spiritual resources, when it appeared that they 
had in possession "The Lord's Prayer" and that alone ! 
It w^as the one talent or pound ! 

Nor was this their only alarm, for they soon dis- 
covered that only one of the three knew this prayer, 
and that was the sister of ten years of age. So really 
there was only one-third of a talent for each. This 
dampened them some at firsts but they found a happy 
escape out of the embarrassment by prevailing on the 
elder sister to go over the form of supplication a 
number of times, the other two learning it as fast as 
they could. 

Here was their capital, their entire stock in trade, 
on which they were to operate. But it was not in 
their minds to despise the day of small things ; neither 
did God despise it. 

Evening after evening these three children went 
oflf to themselves, filled with a profound concern for 



An Incide:nt and Its Lessons. 151 

their souls' salvation, and kneeling down together in 
a fence corner, the elder sister would repeat the prayer 
while the other two stumbled along after her. 

In a few days the older sister was converted, and 
in a few weeks the brother. Later still the younger 
sister was saved. 

They presented to God the only Talent which had 
been entrusted to them, and He blessed it. They put 
the spiritual Pound in the Bank of Faith, and it 
doubled, trebled, quadrupled, bore interest and is still 
bringing returns that no earthly mathematician can 
begin to compute. 

It is now nearly one hundred years since the occur- 
rence took place. The brother and younger sister 
after lives of Christian usefulness died in the faith and 
went home to God. For many years they have been 
at rest in Heaven and their works do follow them. 
The older sister, the one I knew as a young preacher, 
was at that time full of joy and the Holy Ghost, had 
been a blessing to hundreds of people, and was only 
waiting for the summons from the Lord to sweep into 
the skies. Doubtless she is there to-day, with her 
brother and sister, magnifying the grace and love 
of that God who could stoop from Heaven to Hsten 
to and answer the lisping, stammering supplications 
of three country children who were doing the best 
they could to find Him through their humble little 



152 



Graphic Sc^nds. 



prayer meeting or Revival Service held in a fence 
corner. 

In recalling this scene, as I have often done, I can 
but think of the differences in human lives of advant- 
ages and privileges, and the still more startling dis- 
similarity in these same beings in their neglect of 
utilization of opportunity. 

Some people have everything done for them, and 
yet seem to obtain nothing. Others with the smallest 
help; or no help; or sadder still, with everything 
again-st them, refuse to stay down, insist on rising in 
every scale, and in every realm of life, and succeed 
where thousands and millions have failed and given 
up in despair. 

I see the principle referred to in the educational 
realm. 

I have known children whose parents made every 
sacrifice and effort to have them secure what the 
schools and colleges can do for the intellect, and they 
would not consent to be thus benefitted. I knew a 
father who spent large sums on his son, keeping him 
for years at a college, where the boy never left the 
Preparatory Department, but seemed to be satisfied 
to remain an ignoramus in his classes, a hoodlum at 
night, and a daily burden to the heart, and drain on 
the purse of his father. 

At the same university wer^. several boys who 
worked, as it is called, their wa^ through. How they 



An Incident and Its Lessons. 1531 

toiled, economized, studied, suffered and agonized, 
few who read these lines could credit. But each 
year they were advanced to the next class ahead, all 
graduating finally with honor, and one with first 
honors, and all to-day in positions of prominence and 
eminence. 

In looking at the Financial History of the race 
I see the same thing transpiring. One set spending 
thoughtlessly, prodigally and selfishly what another 
body of people painfully and toilsomely accumulated. 

I think of the business thrift and rigid economy 
of the first Vanderbilt and Gould; and notice to-day 
the outlay of these vast fortunes for the pleasure, 
sins and folly of their descendants. Castellane made 
merry with the Gould ducats, while a Hungarian 
Count, the husband of Gladys Vanderbilt, is at the 
present putting six milHon dollars of his wife's inher- 
itance into a castle and chateau that will be, it is said, 
palatial, magnificent and royal. 

The sons of rich men as a rule scatter to the winds 
what their fathers made with herculean labors the 
same winds bring to them. 

In addition the spectacle is on all sides of a single 
individual supporting a large number, who do not 
seem to entertain a solitary throb of appreciation of 
the long years of toil and sacrifice which kept them 
from want and beggary. 

Sometimes the breadwinner is the father of the 



154 



Graphic Sce:ni:s. 



family; sometimes a son; and not infrequently the 
whole burden is on the shoulders of a daughter, who 
toiling as a stenographer and typewriter, receives a 
fine salary indeed, but beholds every cent going to a 
household who accept the life sacrifice as a matter of 
course and meriting neither commendation or return 
of any kind. 

I knew a gentleman to present his wife with a 
very costly diamond necklace and earrings. She 
glanced at them and said carelessly, "Oh, yes, they 
are right pretty," and resumed gossip with a neigh- 
bor while the husband walked away. The w^oman 
doted on diamonds, but she was too selfish and self- 
centered to stop to think what the man had paid out 
and deprived himself of to give her the gems. 

On another occasion a man I know well, handed 
his household a statement in account form on a page 
of paper of what he had given for the family support 
that year. It amounted to over three thousand dol- 
lars. Not one examined it. And yet this sum laid 
aside each year for only ten years would have yielded 
the husband a handsome fortune, and proved an easy 
competence in old age. Then what that thirty-five 
hundred dollars meant tO' him in mental toil, bodily 
exhaustion, and personal sacrifice none but God knew. 

Truly a Day of Judgment is coming. And just 
as certainly a Day of Retribution is approaching even 
in this life for all such people. 



An Incidj:nt and Its I^^ssons. 



155 



In turning to the Religious Life, and the Soul's 
Salvation, I am struck with the same principle at 
work, and the same tremendous difference in the 
individuals of the human family. 

Some people have everything done for them, and 
yet never amount to anything. Others have nothing 
done for them, meet adverse, untoward and opposing 
influences of all kinds; and yet obtain all that God 
has for them, and live to be His faithful servants, 
mighty messengers, spreaders of salvation, exponents 
of Christian character and life, and a blessing to mul- 
tiplied hundreds and thousands of earth. 

Luther read a Bible that was chained to the wall, 
and he had to stand as he read. Millions to-day will 
not read the Book of God though unchained and 
found everywhere, and with rocking-chairs in abun- 
dance in which one may rest while he reads, 

A man in England once, when copies of the Scrips 
ture were scarce, gave a wagon load of grain for a 
single printed sheet of the Gospel containing not quite 
two chapters. On the other hand there are men 
to-day who' would not give a copper cent for the 
entire volume, nor accept the gracious, solemn Book 
of God if it were made a present to them. 

Just as the Dying Thief was converted under four 
or five utterances of Christ as He hung on the Cross, 
while thousands who had heard His wonderful dis- 
courses on the sides of the mountains and by the shores 



156 



Graphic Sce:ne;s. 



of Galilee remained unmoved and unchanged. So 
still we see some individuals finding salvation under 
a single sermon, and holiness in one meeting; while 
others have heard preaching all their lives, been to 
scores of Revival Services, beheld thousands get to 
God right before their eyes, and yet are themselves 
in heart, conscience and spirit as hard as adamant. 

A youth of twenty was converted at a camp-meet- 
ing in Tennessee. In all the sixty years which 
followed he never swerved in his Christian life, finally 
dying at eighty, full of the peace and glory of God, 
and honored by the church throughout the length and 
breadth of the South. But his own son, turned from 
all the helps and advantages thus given him, resisted 
every good influence, hardened his heart against a 
thousand sermons, turned from the godly example of 
his father and the entreaties of his father's friends, 
and became a lazy good-for-nothing, and a drunken 
sot and vagabond. 

In addition this same father had one of the crank- 
iest and most crotchety of wives. She was forever 
getting off the religious track, and was a trial to him 
by her whims and notions beyond words to describe. 
But he bore the life burden faithfully and uncomplain- 
ingly to the last ; and is at rest to-day in Heaven, and 
I doubt not, glad that he is in a world where there 
is neither marrying or giving in marriage, where the 
sting of ingratitude is no longer felt, burdens come 



An Incidi:nt and Its L5:ssons. 



157 



no more, and the hand that betrays and wounds is 
with him no longer on the table. 

Truly, this is a strange, jumbled-up kind of world. 
I could never understand, even portions of its history, 
if I did not go like David to the Sanctuary of God. 
There with the Word of God and the Spirit of God, 
I get some explanation and insight into many things 
that otherwise would remain dark and unsolvable but 
for the light and help of Heaven. 

Moreover, what I see and what I feel, makes me 
say that I would rather be of the smaller company of 
the oppressed I have described, than the larger follow- 
ing, for reasons that touch both earth and Heaven. 

I would ten thousand times over, rather bear the 
burdens of others than be a burden to the already 
overloaded and oftentimes sorrow-pressed children of 
men. 

I would rather pull the wagon until I fell breath- 
less, exhausted and dying in the harness, than to be 
one of a crowd sitting in the wagon ; thoughtless, sel- 
fish, pitiless and Christless, laying the lash on the 
one in the traces, and saying with laughter and abuse, 
Why does he not pull harder ! 

The Bible tells us of one who had nothing done 
for Him, but who did everything for others. He 
went about doing good. He bore our sorrows, says 
the Book, carried our grief, and tasted death for every 
man. 



158 



Graphic Sci:ni:s. 



This God-Man, the world's moral standard today ; 
should be an example, an inspiration, and also our 
consolation. Then the fact that He knows what we 
are doing for Him and Humanity, and sees what we 
are suffering, and the burdens we are bearing and 
have borne for many years — truly this should keep us 
strong, sweet, brave, patient and faithful, in the face 
of all indifference, ingratitude, and opposition until 
we come to the end of the way. , 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Kodak Picturi:s o:^ Bishop Wightman and Dr. 
C. K. Marshai.1.. 

At the close of my second year's pastorate, the 
annual conference was held at Natchez, a beautiful 
old Southern city located on the banks of the mile- 
wide Mississippi. 

As the Natchez Railroad was not then built, 
twenty-five or thirty young preachers, together with 
a number of the five examining committees, took the 
beautiful and majestic Robert E. Lee for the trip from 
Vicksburg down the river. This palatial steamer, 
one of the last of that class of large and magnificent 
steamboats which once plowed the Father of Waters, 
especially from Vicksburg to New Orleans, was 
destined to furnish me a few years later with two of 
the most striking illustrations that I have ever used 
in the pulpit. 

Most of the younger clerical brethren took advan- 
tage of this trip to finally and forever settle amiong 
themselves certain mighty and long-vexed questions 
and problems of the world, if not the universe itself. 
Having been dipping for a year or so in the study of 

159 



i'6o 



Graphic Sc^N^g. 



divinity, as well as paying some attention to various 
collateral branches of learning, they felt decidedly 
competent to expound any doctrine, elucidate every 
mystery, and clear up and settle, to the satisfaction 
of everybody, all matters biological, geological, the- 
ological, psychological and eschatological. 

The older preachers looked with suppressed amuse- 
ment upon these bantam rooster Sanhedrim gather- 
ings, and could be seen glancing back with twitching 
facial muscles at the chair circle of disputants, with 
their hand wavings, head shakings and general Pod- 
snappian deliverances of opinion. 

The air of self-complacency of most of these young 
brethren, their perfect self-satisfaction, was enough 
to suggest the thought that it was fortunate for the 
interests of the church, and the welfare of the world 
itself, that they had come upon the scene of action 
at this very period of time. Perhaps they felt this. 
Certainly they looked it. One could but wonder how 
those same aforesaid great, grave questions could ever 
be discussed, much less doubted, again, after the 
floods of light thrown upon them by these profound 
young gentlemen, the oldest of whom had seen twenty- 
four summers. 

Oh, the bantam chicken Sanhedrims of to-day! 
The adolescent philosophers ! The omniscient boy 
preachers ! The learned rabbis and doctors of law 
coming forth from the laundry, dry goods counter, 



Kodak Picturi;s. 



i6i 



butcHer shop, note-shaving office and messenger boy 
desk, all of whom feel perfectly competent to sit in 
judgment on the writings and utterances of men 
whom the whole world has agreed to honor; and 
decide questions that the wisest of intellects and saint- 
liest of characters have felt it best to speak upon with 
the greatest of caution, or even refused to speak at 
all. 

On the following day the main body of the Con- 
ference, preachers, laymen and presiding elders, came 
down on the steamer Natchez, the rival in beauty, 
majesty and size of the Robert E. Lee. 

Bishop Wightman, the polished Southern gentle- 
man, the lovely Christian, and one of the most gifted 
pulpit orators in the church, took passage on the 
same boat. Everyone seemed to be glad that he was 
to preside over the coming assembly. At this time 
he was approaching, if not fully, seventy years of 
age. As a kind of companion and help, Bro. Cam- 
eron, the recording secretary of the conference, was 
chosen to be with the bishop in his stateroom. 

The tiny apartment had two berths, an upper and 
lower, the former being just Vvade enough for one 
person, while the latter, in which Bishop Wightman 
reposed, was a few inches broader. Two parties 
might lie upon it, but tlie outside, occupant would be in 
constant danger of falling out, while the insider, with 



Graphic Sce:ne;s. 



a double compression of wall and lung, could have 
nothing but an experience of deepest discomfort. 

The two gentlemen retired to their respective 
bunks, bade each other good night and proceeded to 
court sleep, lulled by distant sounds in the boat, the 
deep-toned bell, musical whistle, throb of the machin- 
ery, beat of the great side wheels and song of the 
deck hands. 

Repeatedly through the night Bro. Cameron heard 
the Bishop turning restlessly and sighing, but fearing 
if he spoke of awakening him, said nothing. When 
it was broad day, however, he in anxiety about the 
responsible charge committed to him, peered over the 
edge of his berth downward upon the one where the 
Chief Superintendent lay, when, to his amazement 
and consternation, he discovered a long, lank, gawky 
countryman in bed with the head officer of the Con- 
ference, and that he had crowded him into one-third 
of the space of the narrow cot and close against the 
wall. 

The bishop was in a troubled kind of slumber, 
while the intruder was wide awake and seemed to be 
thinking. Bro. Cameron, after several attempts at 
coherent speech, such was his surprise, finally shot out 
the following sentence like a bullet: 

"My friend, how on earth did you get in here?" 

With the greatest composure of manner and even- 



Kodak Pictures. 



163 



ness of speech, the unbidden guest pointed his finger 
and repHed : 

came in there through the door." 

This simple reply acted so powerfully upon Bro. 
Cameron that he cried, "Oh !" and fell back flat on 
his pillow and did some lively thinking of his own 
for a while. In another minute he returned to the 
attack, and informed the man, who bewildered and 
misled by the long row of identically similar state- 
rooms, had blundered into strange quarters, that he 
was in Bishop Wightman's room ; and that he was 
not only, so to speak, in the wrong box, but was in 
the wrong bed ; and that he had crowded the presiding 
officer of the Conference and jammed one of the 
chief superintendents of the church against the wall, 
and doubtless prevented him from obtaining a half 
hour's sleep during the whole night. 

Bro. Cameron had hardly concluded his earnest 
and eloquent exhortation, when the man was in part 
of his clothing, next caught up the balance of his 
garments and was off like a flash. 

The Bishop, in his gentle, Christlike spirit, made 
no complaint. His haggard face showed how loss of 
rest had affected him, but his single comment upon 
the occasion was, ''That he had not slept very comfort- 
ably, and that he did not feel quite as well as usual." 

Part of the Conference was indignant, and otherr 
were much amused over the incident. The culprit 



164 



Graphic Sci^ne^s. 



himself spent the rest of the day in dodging- pointing 
fingers, curious eyes and laughing faces. As the 
bishop's bedfellow, as a man with greatness suddenly 
thrust upon him, he was in a sense the hero of the 
hour. It was a dignity however, and distinguished 
consideration from which he would gladly have 
escaped. 

Nevertheless, who can tell, but that after he had 
returned home and the soreness of the affair had 
passed away, he may have turned the incident so as 
to reflect great honor upon himself. How naturally 
and easily he would refer time and again in conver- 
sation with his children and grandchildren to his trip 
on the palatial steamer Natchez to the Annual Confer- 
ence. In reply to the question_, "Did you go alone?" 
the response would be, "No; Bishop Wightman and 
I travelled together." And to the further inquiry, 
"Did you see much of the bishop ?" would come the 
response, with a proper veiling of the eyes in humility, 
"We occupied the same stateroom and slept together." 

All this would be strictly true, and yet how far 
from the truth ! But who has not heard the boast of 
pride that had no more foundation of verity than the 
claim made above, and similar speeches which all of 
us have repeatedly listened to in silence. 

Bishop Wightman preached twice at the Confer- 
ence; once on the Holy Spirit, and again from the 



Kodak Pictures. 



165 



text, "Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, 
shine forth." 

The recollection of the speaker^s reverent manner 
in the ptilpit, his unconscious dignity and grace, his 
chaste, pure language, elevated thought and sweeping 
eloquence remains an imperishable treasure of the 
mind. 

I have listened since to ranters, ravers, screamers, 
and plungers in the pulpit, who were vociferating 
nothing and worse than nothing, and sighed for the 
Heavenly School which sent forth as messengers of 
God and ambassadors of Christ such men as Wight- 
man and others whom I listened to in the early days 
of my ministry. How I do pray and trust that what- 
ever other college may close its doors, that this same 
Institute referred to may continue tO' receive its appli- 
cants for good sense as well as Heavenly power, and 
turn out an ever-increasing number of graduates to 
bless the world. 

A second prominent figure at the Conference was 
Dr. C. K. Marshall, of Vicksburg. As a preacher and 
pulpit orator he was the first in the South, and the 
equal if not the superior of the famous Bishop Bas- 
com. The latter memorized his sermons, while Dr. 
Marshall, with his factory-like mind, turned out the 
rarest and loveliest textures and fabrics of thought 
while standing on his feet. He spoke from an inner 
sanctuary, and not from paper. It mattered not how 



Graphic Sc:eNes. 



long he preached, the impression would be upon the 
audience of great mental reserves upon which the 
speaker had made no demand. Repeatedly I have 
known him to hold an audience spellbound for two 
hours, and heard a sigh of regret arise from the peo- 
ple when he would close the Bible and say, "And now 
in conclusion." 

Walking up the aisle, every eye somehow would 
be drawn to him ; and, standing in the pulpit, he was 
one of the most imposing, majestic-looking men I ever 
saw. His figure was commanding, his head massive, 
his face thoughtful and luminous, his mouth large, 
and his lips were mobility itself. 

It was said of him that "he looked eloquent." And 
truly the appearance agreed with the reality. No 
musician ever touched and struck the strings of an 
instrument with greater power than this man could 
sweep every chord of feeling in the human breast. 
He could have his audience in tears or laughter, on 
fire or in breathless awe, just as he willed. 

I once heard him preach from the text, "Verily 
thou art a God that hidest thyself." Under this won- 
derful sermon the church became a valley of Bochim, 
and the altar crowded with seekers. 

Then he was a full man. His great head was lit- 
erally packed with every kind of knowledge, and the 
gifted tongue knew well how to bring it out, so that 
wherever he appeared, whether by the fireside with a 



Kodak Pictures. 



167 



friend, in the social circle, at the preachers' meeting*, 
in the city mass meeting or great gatherings of the 
church, everybody felt the wonderful power of the 
man. 

On the Conference floor, in matters of debate, the 
very riches of his mind would sometimes be against 
him, or he would be insensibly led away from the 
main point of argument and go to revelling in the 
treasures poured out by his intellect and wonderfully 
rich experiences of life. 

A laughable illustration of this was witnessed at 
the very Conference of which I am writing. The 
doctor was speaking to some question, when one 
thought suggesting another, the first thing everybody 
knew the speaker was clear off from his subject. All 
that he said was edifying and delightful, but he had 
forgotten the point which he desired to make. Doubt- 
less he himself realized what had happened, but he 
talked on in his matchless way, the Conference mean- 
time listening, applauding and charmed, as usual. 

There was one preacher present, however, who 
did not relish the idea of thus using up the time. He 
was for business, and for business alone. So after 
listening with a protesting countenance for quite a 
while, he suddenly arose and cried out : 

''Mr. President, what is before the house?" 

Instantly Dr. Marshall whirled around upon the 
interrupter, and replied, with a stentorian voice: 



Graphic 'Sce;ns:s. 



"I am before the house/' 

To this day I recall the burst of laughter and 
applause from the Conference^ the unmistakable dis- 
comfiture of the interposing- brother, and the triumph- 
ant look and bearing of Dr. Marshall. 

Are not all these things written in the chronicles 
of the Annual Conference of Mississippi ? 



CHAPTER XX. 



My First Station — A Song In Th^ Garden — The: 
Ragged Coat. 

At the Natchez Conference I was ordained deacon 
by Bishop Wightman, and at the beginning* of the 
third year of my ministry received the station appoint- 
ment of Brandon. 

This is the town in whose grassy fields I lay one 
starry night as a boy, with some campers, and listened 
to a brass band playing in the public square a mile 
away. The Civil War was nearing its close; regi- 
ments were camped around, couriers were galloping 
up and down the road ; while the military band played 
*'01d Dog Tray," ^'Maggie By My Side," and other 
pieces which I remember to this day. 

I little thought that night I would ever be a Meth- 
odist minister, and the preacher in charge of that 
town. 

Brandon in the last twenty years has greatly 
changed. In other days it was socially and intellect- 
ually among the first communities of ■ ' South. It 
gave generals to the war; \ ' Missis- 
sippi; several judges to the district; the foremost 

169 



Graphic Scsne:s. 



editor to the State; and any number of gifted men 
to the Legislature at Jackson and to Congress at 
Washington. 

I was sent to this place in the zenith of its glory, 
and never had any subsequent pastoral charge that 
possessed a finer body of men, or a greater number of 
superior and charming women. 

The church was a beautiful brick edifice with taper- 
ing spire, and deep-toned, solemn bell. On the first 
Sabbath, a bitterly cold day, with alternate showers 
of rain and sleet, the audience consisted of about 
^twenty people. My text was, "I determined not to 
know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him 
crucified." God being my judge this I faithfully tried 
to do during the entire four years' pastorate which 
■followed. 

Very lovely were many of the people whose ac- 
quaintanceship and friendship I formed at that time. 
And very striking were many of the incidents which 
crowded themselves into that period. Protracted 
meetings, revivals, pastoral labors, sick bed visits, 
death chamber scenes, flower-crowned marriage altars, 
and memorable occurrences of every kind followed 
each other in a strange and swift procession. 

One of my stewards was afterwards Governor of 
Mississippi for eight years. He had six grown daugh- 
ters, who were remarkably handsome women. When 
the father would take a trip to Jackson on legal bus- 



My First Station. 



171 



iness, and one of the six would request the privilege 
of accompanying him, his reply was, "If all six of 
you will come, you can go with me." So' frequently 
he would visit the capital of the State with his bevy 
of beautiful daughters surrounding him. The sensa- 
tion produced, and the sight of gentlemen bowing and 
scraping around, and begging for introductions, can 
be easily imagined. Three of these young women 
were converted and joined the church during my 
pastorate. 

Among the female members of my charge was a 
woman who^ was a devoted Christian and abounded 
in good works as well as good words. With her 
intelligent spiritual face in the audience, and devoted 
labors in the church, she was prized by every one of 
her pastors as they came and went, as one of the 
first in the foremost rank of the congregation. 

In those days I knew nothing of the experience 
of sanctification, and never heard the doctrine 
preached. However I urged a perfect consecration 
upon the people, and by this Gospel unconsciously 
drove the woman to make a complete offering of her- 
self to God. 

One morning in her room, while waiting upon the 
Lord in protracted prayer, the fire fell, and she 
undoubtedly sv/ept into the possession of full salva- 
tion. She did not understand what she had received, 
neither did her pastor. She insisted that she was 



172 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



converted for the first time. I knew that this was 
not the case, but at the same time did not comprehend 
the marvellous grace which had come upon her and 
filled her. 

A great joy seemed to be constantly welling up 
in her soul. Her face literally shone. Her voice 
had an exultant ring. Her spirit was one of perfect 
love. Her life seemed to be unruffled by any kind 
of provocation. Her presence in the congregation 
was an inspiration to the preacher. In the Sunday 
school her class grew so rapidly that the superin- 
tendent was compelled to take members from it, and 
give them to teachers whose classes were always 
diminishing. In my pastoral visits among the poor, 
sick and afflicted, I found she had already preceded me. 
She went into the store of a merchant who was blind, 
and exceedingly crabbed, and under pretense of buy- 
ing a yard of cloth, tore off ten yards of salvation 
to him. Her life was one of such countless benedic- 
tions to those who needed her varied ministrations, 
that it seemed everybody loved her. Repeatedly I 
have beheld unsaved men lift their hats as she passed 
along the street, and heard them say when she was 
out of earshot, "God bless her." 

Here was a case where a person received the 
blessing of holiness or perfect love and did not know 
the name of the grace possessed. And here was an 
instance, rare as it is, where a preacher, though press- 



\ 



My First Station. 173 

ing a pure Gospel, and urging a perfectly consecrated 
life, brought a soul into a religious experience and 
life far higher and immeasurably beyond his own. 

In connection with the little house I rented, I 
had a small kitchen garden, which I cultivated with 
my own hands at spare moments, in order to help 
along a slim salary. 

One day, while working among the plants and 
vines, I commenced singing the following hymn : 

"The mistakes of my life have been many, 

But the sins of my heart have been more ; 
And I scarcely can see for my weeping, 

But I'll knock at the open door. 
I know I am sinful and unworthy, 

And now I feel it more and more, 
But Jesus invites me to come in, 

So I'll knock at the open door, 
But Jesus invites me to come in, 

So I'll knock at the open door." 

With a tender, melted heart and with now and 
then a half-choking utterance, I sang the piece over 
and over. To my astonishment and gladness I learned 
a few hours afterwards that the song had led to the 
salvation of a soul. 

Another garden joined ours but separated by a 
high plank fence. Hidden from me by the wall and 
shrubbery, the woman who owned the property was 
at work gathering some vegetables. She heard the 



174 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



first lines of the hymn and then sat down to listen fo 
the end. She was a hard-featured and hard-hearted 
woman, but the Gospel in the song broke through the 
icy crust around the soul, the tears began to pour 
down the furrowed face, and as the lines wer^ 
repeated, 

"I know I am sinful and unworthy, 
And now I feel it more and more, 

But Jesus invites me to come in, 
So I'll knock at the open door " 

behold! she knocked, with a piteous sobbing wail 
to God for mercy in the Savior's name, and in an 
instant was soundly converted. 

Since that occurrence I have more than ever appre- 
ciated the poem about the arrow shot in the air, and 
the song that was sung alone in an evening walk. 
Long afterwards, wrote the author, I saw the arrow, 
in a tree, and later still I found my song word for 
word in the heart of a friend. 

In the Fall of the year there was a District Con- 
ference, or some kind of ecclesiastical gathering in 
our church. To this assembly congregated quite a 
number of preachers. Among them- was a young min- 
ister in the local ranks who came from the depths of 
the piney woods. He attended the meeting either as a 
supply to one of the circuits or as a lay delegate, we 



My First Station. 



175 



forget which. He was appointed to preach one after- 
noon and did not only well but remarkably well. 

My heart, however fairly ached through the 
whole sermon, as I observed the ragged coat the 
man wore. A more threadbare, patched and torn 
garment I never saw before on the form of a min- 
ister of the Gospel. 

The Committee of Public Worship announced that 
Bro. G. would preach again on Sunday morning, the 
next day. Meantime I had him assigned to my^ 
parsonage home as a guest. 

Sitting in the study with him I had a nearer view: 
of his time-worn clothing, when I saw it was in a 
more dilapidated state than when first seen. 

As I sat talking to, and looking at him, a voices 
in my breast whispered, 

"Why don't you give him your coat?'* 

The immediate mental reply was, "Lord, with the 
exception of the every-day coat I have on, I have but 
one nice one, which I am keeping for Conference. If 
I give that away I have no money to get another, and 
Conference is close by." 

There was a silence of moments, and then the 
voice clear and unmistakable whispered again: 

"If that was Christ sitting before you in that 
ragged garment, what would you do?" 

My eyes filled instantly at the thought and I said 
to the inner monitor : 



176 



• Graphic Sc^n^s. 



"I would go at once, kneel down before him and 
say, My Savior, wont you please let me give you my 
coat?" 

After another moment's stillness the voice re- 
sumed : 

**Did he not say w^hen on earth that what was 
done in behalf of one of his poor followers or disciples, 
was done to him?" 

There was another gush of tears, and rising up 
at once I approached the brother, placed a hand gently 
on his shoulder and said : 

"Bro. G., I have a coat that I would be so glad if 
you would receive. Will you accept it, my brother?" 

He looked up and instantly his face was wet with 
tears. He replied in a choked voice that he w^ould. 
And in five minutes we had his rags off, and a nice 
broadcloth coat on him that fitted as well as if made 
especially for him by a tailor. 

How happy the giver was ! And next day, sitting 
before the preacher in a church crowded with nicely 
dressed people, how glad and how properly proud I 
was, that our friend in the pulpit looked as well as 
anybody in the pews. 

As for my own well-worn, every-day coat, I never 
saw it look better, and certainly it never seemed to 
fit better than on that same Sabbath morning when 
another man had on his back the garment in which 
1 expected to shine at the coming Annual Conference. 



My First Station. 



177 



Nor was that all. Only a month later, and several 
weeks before the aforesaid Conference, a letter came 
to me from a wealthy man in a distant part of the 
State. He had not heard a single word of the matter 
mentioned above. The letter was quite brief and said, 
''Send me the measure of your coat." 

Ten days later an express package arrived con- 
taining a handsome broadcloth coat, an equally excel- 
lent vest, and a beautiful pair of doeskin pantaloons. 

The Lord will never be outdone in the matter of 
giving. So not only was the principal of my donation 
returned to me in the shape of the coat, but a waist- 
coat and trousers were thrown in by way of interest. 

A certain wonderful Book declares that he who 
giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord. And a cer- 
tain marvellous Teacher said when he was on earth, 
''Give and it shall be given unto you ; good measure, 
pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, 
shall men give into your bosom." 

Hundreds who read these lines know both state- 
ments to be blessedly true, and that no institution o£ 
earth, nor all of them combined, ever allow such inter- 
est, declare such dividends and issue such coupons, as 
the ever-paying, never-failing and eternally unshaken 
Bank of Heaven. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Thi: Young Lovers — A Dying Travelling Agknt* 
— A Photograph oi^ Dr. J. B. McFe:rrin. 

It is strange that among all the many happenings 
of this period of my life one memory should cling with 
such tenacity to the mind, severed as it was from my 
immediate pastoral charge, while the parties to the 
scene soon left the town to come back no more. 

The simple recollection is that of a young couple 
walking before me up a hilly slope towards the town. 
The sun was setting, and a church -bell was ringing 
in the distance. Instantly the lines of an old ballad 
came back: 

"When up the hilly slope we'd climb, 

To watch the dying of the day, 

And hear the distant church bells chime." 

The girl was one of the most beautiful in the State. 
Two young men loved her, and they were cousins. 
The handsomer of the two failed to win the prize, and 
there was a sad history whispered about the matter. 
The other cousin was the one walking that evening 
by her side, and whom she soon afterward married. 

178 



The: Young Lovers. 



179 



Two tragedies were waiting for them but a few 
years removed; and both were to especially wound 
and crush her. Then the handsome cousin met a 
sudden death, and under the most distressing circum- 
stances. 

I knew not what was coming. Perhaps the sad- 
ness was prophetic that stole over me as I watched 
them walking side by side up the sloping hill toward 
town, while the far away church bell kept ringing on 
in the misty light. Maybe it was the dying day, the 
solemn note in the air, or a partial knowledge of cer- 
tain features of this life drama before me that produced 
the melancholy and stamped the memory of the even- 
ing scene so ineffaceably upon the mind. I do not 
know. I only know that this old world is full of sad 
histories, separated friendships, severed lives, dis- 
jointed occurrences, broken off. connections, unexplain- 
able hindrances and failures, unfinished labors, unful- 
filled desires, and disappointments in time, and in 
people and in ourselves by the thousands and ten 
thousand. 

We know from the loose end of things here, the 
fragmentary nature of life, the work just begun, the 
bitter partings, the crushing wrongs of earth, that 
there must be a better, sweeter, happier world and 
existence to come. 

One day I was informed that a young traveling 



i8o 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



agent was dying at the hotel. He had come to the 
place on a spree, and this with an already overtaxed 
system, produced a sickness which proved fatal. 

For perfect quiet, the landlord had moved the 
sufferer to a cottage room in the midst of a garden 
and vineyard. Here I found him, the stamp of death 
on his face, gazing through the window down a trel- 
lished walk that was fluttering with myriads of leaves. 
He looked as if he was expecting some one. 

The distant wife had been telegraphed for, and 
was on her way. But Death also was on the way. 
Both were flying towards this man. Who would 
arrive first. Whose form would he see coming up the 
vine-covered walk? 

I knelt down after a brief interview and prayed 
for him. I will never forget how I pleaded with 
agonized spirit but controlled voice for the soul of 
this unsaved man. I prayed over twenty minutes! 
I could not help it. 

On arising I begged his forgiveness for having 
so trespassed on his strength and patience. His 
glance fell kindly upon me for a moment, and with a 
solemn voice he answered: 

"No one can pray too long for me now.*' 

Then, forgetful it seemed of any human presence 
he turned his old wistful gaze through the window 
and fixed his sorrowful, expectant eyes on the arbor 
walk, as if watching for something or somebody. 



The: Young Lovers. i8i 

Who would arrive first? Death or the young-, 
heart-broken wife now rushing through the land on 
a train in order to reach his side? 

I never saw him again in life. He passed away 
in a few hours. 

Next morning I beheld the hearse with a coffin 
containing his silent form passing down the street on 
the way to the depot. In a carriage behind sat a 
woman dressed in black, with her face buried in her 
hands. 

In the Annual Conference held at Jackson, Miss., 
at the conclusion of the year, the person who towered 
physically, oratorically, and almost every other way 
over the assembly was Rev. J. B. McFerrin, of Nash- 
ville, Tenn. He was one of the connectional officers 
of the church, and I think book agent at this time of 
the Publishing House. His work led him to visit 
the different Conferences, where he delivered busi- 
ness addresses before those bodies, and frequently 
preached at night. He had cavernous gray eyes, a. 
retreating forehead and prominent nose and cheek 
bones. His voice in the great flights of his preaching 
would be at times high and shrill ; in lower notes 
sometimes nasal, but at all times he was a wonderful 
speaker. 

He was equally at home in pulpit, on platform 
or standing on the floor debating some motion or 



l82 



Graphic Sc^nsjs. 



question before the house. He seemed to be a born 
orator, possessed most remarkable magnetic power, 
was full of originality, and had the rare gift and ability 
of sweeping his audience from tears to laughter, and 
from smiles back to tears again at his sovereign will. 
There was simply no resisting the man's power as 
a speaker. 

Had he gone into politics he would have been the 
idol of his party and been swept into the highest office. 
But he gave his heart, life and talents to Christ instead, 
and devoted himself to the work of doing good. 

Two things kept him from being elected to the 
bishopric in our church. The one I mention was that 
it was the desire of his brethren to keep him in the 
field, actively employed as he was, rather than as a 
president over deliberative and business assemblies. 
So he continued to sweep as a pulpit and platform 
inspiration and benediction all over the land. 

In one of his public addresses where he made his 
usual plea for a collection and a big one at that, a 
preacher told bim that when he died the following 
Bible passage ought to be carved on his tombstone: 
"And it came to pass that the beggar died." 

Looking up quickly, with his eyes filling with tears, 
he said: 

"I agree, provided you add the rest of the verse — 
"and was carried by the angels into Abraham's 
bosom.' '' 



Tne Young Lovers. 



183 



The effect on the congregation of this quick turn 
of speech, given in a choking voice, would be impos- 
sible to truly describe. The echo of the laugh over 
the first picture had not died away when tears were 
seen in hundreds of eyes and sobs, amens, and halle- 
lujahs filled the building. 

He was wonderfully vigilant to preserve in perfect 
integrity the Discipline of our church with all its 
rules and ritual from the innovating iconoclastic hand 
of every preacher and lay member of the General 
Conference. 

One of this class was trying with all his might of 
reason and eloquence to remove one of these disciplin- 
ary features dear to the Methodist heart of Dr. 
McFerrin. Being as astute as he was eloquent, the 
Doctor resorted to the expedient of crying out: 
*Xouder !" "Louder !" "Louder !" that the speaker 
might be driven into screaming, and so become men- 
tally rattled, speak unadvisedly and lose the undoubted 
hold he had at present on the audience. 

Finally Bro. Innovator became quite vexed at such 
frequent interruptions of his speech, and breakages 
of the mental chain he was forming between himself 
and the crowd; and so cried out to the Bishop that 
Dr. McFerrin be allowed to bring a chair forward 
and sit near, where the Doctor's deafness would be 
at the least disadvantage. 

The idea of Dr. McFerrin being deaf was smile 



i84 



Graphic Sce:ni:s. 



provoking, for he heard as well as any one. He was 
scheming to preserve Methodism in her old-time 
ways and customs. With equally deep design he took 
considerable time to get a chair, and locate it suitably, 
knowing all the while that the speaker was cooling and 
the audience with him. 

At last, after stationing the seat about four feet 
directly in front of the speaker and almost under him. 
Dr. McFerrin put his hand behind his right ear, lifting 
it up, so to speak, and pushing it forward, and then 
cried out to Bro. Innovator with that rich nasal voice 
for which he was famous : 

"Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth/' 

In an instant the whole assembly was convulsed 
with laughter. Bro. Innovator was stricken speech- 
less, and Dr. McFerrin won his case and the vote by 
a tremendous majority, and all without a reply to his 
opponent on the floor. 

One night at Annual Conference he preached from 
the text, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy 
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 

With his marvellous power he had been moving 
his audience for nearly an hour as a wind stirs a wheat 
field. Suddenly he changed and began dwelling upon 
the gloom and darkness which had been brought to 
this earth by death. No one who died ever came 



Thb Young IyOVBrs. 



185 



back from the other shore. When the sad messenger 
visited our homes the light went out from the faces 
of our loved ones and they never heard us nor spoke 
to us again. In a few months and years their bodies, 
■which we had loved so dearly, had lost all form and 
semblance of what they had been, and gone back to 
the earth from whence they came. 

He then spoke of having been sent by the church 
to bring the ashes of Bishops Soule and Early to the 
Vanderbilt Campus for burial. He described the 
digging of the graves, the complete disappearance of 
the coffins, and only a double handful of dust and 
bones left of these two good men and mighty servants 
of God ! He said that he turned from the sight, and 
with his face buried in his hands cried out : 

"Oh, my God! is this what is left of ihose you 
have made and redeemed ? Is this the pitiful and final 
goal to which we are coming ! Is this all, and is this 
the end!'* 

He stood for a half minute with face covered and 
head bowed, as if gazing in the grave ; when suddenly 
he lifted his countenance Heavenward with a triumph- 
ant look, and with a voice that stirred and thrilled and 
fired every heart, he literally shouted the words of 
the text — "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ ! which according to his abundant mercy ! 
hath begotten us again! unto a lively hope! by the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!" 



Graphic SciJn^s. 



The voice, manner, attitude and cry of the preacher 
acted so together as to produce something like an 
electric shock, and a perfect wave of glory rolled over 
that weeping, shouting audience. 

A few years later the Doctor, after a long life full 
of labors and victories, came to his death-bed. His 
ison was absent hundreds of miles and telegraphed 
for. Friends then came in and told the dying father 
that his oldest born could not arrive before he himself 
would have passed away into the glory world. 

The Doctor was propped up on five or six pillows 
to obtain easier breathing, when he received this infor- 
mation. Gathering up his remaining strength, while 
his face fairly shone with Heavenly joy and triumph, 
he replied: "Tell John he knows where to find his 
old father!" 

And he was gone! 



CHAPTER XXII. 



An Ovkrconi^idknt Preache:r — A Sudde^n Dj:ath 
— An HumbIvI: Man oi^ God. 

During the second year of the Brandon pastorate 
I received a number of invitations from the conference 
preachers to assist them in protracted meetings. Full 
of work myself I had little time to spare, but now and 
then would yield to an urgent call and give the place 
six days. In every instance I would see a revival 
break out in that brief period. 

In one of these Mississippi towns where I was 
assisting the pastor in a protracted meeting, another 
preacher dropped in to view the battle. The night he 
arrived I preached and had as usual a full altar and 
a number of conversions. In walking to the parson- 
age with me, he entirely overlooked the success of the 
service and found fault with the sermon. He told 
me that I had not handled the text right, and how I 
should have treated the subject. I was much humbled, 
Tout took the correction gratefully and thanked him. 
I also begged him to fill the pulpit for me the following 
night. He instantly and cordially accepted the invi- 
tation, and gladdened my heart in so doing as I 

187 



Graphic Sce:ni:s. 



honestly craved to be instructed in all things, especially 
in the matter and manner of effective preaching. 

The next night came in due time, and my friend 
walked into the pulpit with a most jubilant, self- 
assured and expectant air. He aimed and shot a 
regular forty-four-pounder at the congregation. He 
showed himself familiar with a number of the sciences, 
knocked over Darwin and Huxley, and left nothing 
of Herbert Spencer. His gesticulation was splendid, 
his pronunciation faultless, and his peroration fine 
and I thought overwhelming. He concluded, and I 
looked to see nearly the whole audience crowding to 
the altar, when lo ! not a soul came forward. The 
preacher seemed surprised, and repeated his invitation, 
but not a single individual would budge under any 
kind of proposition, and not a solitary person was 
converted, reclaimed or blessed, that night. In walk- 
ing back to the parsonage with me, my friend was 
profoundly silent. He seemed to be thinking. Next 
morning he left on the first train, taking his forty- 
four-pound cannon with him. I remained behind 
with my single-barreled shotgun, or pop-gun, as men 
of differing judgment would decide, and resumed the 
battle. Victory through the goodness of God came 
as usual, but I did not fully understand all the mystery 
of the situation for months and years afterwards. 

One morning after the sermon, and while the after 
service was in progress, the Spirit of God fell like a 



An Ov^rcons^ide:nt Pre:ache:r. 189 



flash of lightning on a lady who was at the altar. 

She was a member of the church and recognized as 
one of the best women in the town. In what charac- 
ter she presented herself as a seeker I do not 
remember; perhaps as desiring "more of Christ.'* 
Her phraseology may have been defective in explain- 
ing her want, but God read the hungry, honest heart, 
there was a burst of glory from the skies, and the 
woman stood perfectly transfigured before me while 
uttering cries of holy rapture that linger in -memory 
with me to this day. She seemed electrified, galvan- 
ized, literally charged with divine glory and power. 
She was so filled with the Holy Ghost as to appear 
almost in an agony. 

Ignorant as I was then of the blessing of entire 
sanctification, I knew not what had happened, save 
that a woman had been overwhelmingly blessed by 
the Lord. And yet here was the second instance in 
my life where I had led a person into a religious exper- 
ience which I did not possess myself. 

Such an appeal as this woman gave the congrega- 
tion, followed by additional waves of spiritual ecstasy, 
will never be forgotten by the audience of that morning. 
Her face especially impressed the people. And until 
her death fifteen years later, she never lost the holy, 
heavenly look which God gave her that hour. 

In this same town there was a society woman who 
literally lived for worldly pleasure. No religion or 



190 



Graphic Sce:ne:s. 



revivals for her. She was handsome and young, 
and as physically frail as she was bright and pretty. 
She had contracted or inherited some affection of the 
heart that virtually placed her on the border land of 
eternity every moment, and yet this awful fact never 
stopped her a moment in the giddy whirl of social 
pleasure, and the unwearied pursuit of every kind of 
amusement. 

Her physician, a member of the church where T 
was holding the meeting, warned her of her danger; 
told her that with such a diseased organ as she carried 
in her breast, she would be likely, under any strong 
excitement or emotion, to go like a flash into eternity. 
Her reply was a merry laugh. 

One day he happened to be passing her home, 
when he was suddenly called in, and just in time by 
powerful heart restoratives, to save her life. But 
still she did not change her manner of living. One 
afternoon soon after the occurrence just mentioned, 
this physician was paying a professional call in the 
neighborhood when^ as he was near this lady's house, 
the front door suddenly opened, a servant rushed out, 
and seeing the family practitioner, cried out : 

*'Oh, Dr. K ! Come to my mistress quick ! She 

is dying !" 

Dr. K , knowing the peculiar and imminent 

peril of the case, needed no second call. He told me 
that he leaped up the staircase three steps at a time, 



An Ovi:rcon^ide:nt PRi:ACHi:R. 191 



and literally burst open the door of the bedroom. The 
woman was sitting on the edge of her couch, and as 
the physician entered she stretched out her hands 
toward him, her great black eyes dilated with horror, 
and gasped: 

"Oh, Doctor, Doctor !" 

And fell back lifeless on the bed. He said that he 
sprang to her side, but when he touched her she was 
dead. Even while he looked into the unconscious 
face, the soul of the woman was millions of leagues 
away in its long journey into eternity. 

Here was the same town, the same Gospel, two 
women in the same social realm, and yet what different 
receptions of the Word of God, what morally opposite 
lives, and what a fearful contrast in their deaths and 
everlasting destinies. 

It was during this year I attended for the first 
time the famous Sea Shore Camp Ground, located 
midway between New Orleans and Mobile. Situated 
in a vast grove of pine, oak and other beautiful forest 
trees of the South, and fronting the Gulf of Mexico, 
there is naturally no lovelier locality for such an 
annual gathering to be found in the whole country. 

At this time the wooden cottages were of simple 
construction, and there was no desire or movement 
upon the part of the people to make it a summer resort 
or a Chautauqua assembly. Salvation was the chief 



192 



Graphic Sc^nj:s. 



end in view, and so every year witnessed for quite a 
while, a genuine revival sweep the camp, and tidal 
waves of salvation roll as high as I have witnessed 
since at any camp ground. 

In those days not less than one hundred preachers 
attended this meeting. Sixty or seventy slept in a 
long, narrow building, whose furniture consisted of 
as many cots ranged in a double row, with a narrow 
passage between, perhaps a dozen chairs, two tin 
basins for washing purposes, and a small looking-glass 
a foot square hanging on the wall in the center of 
this airy, breezy tenement. 

On these simple canvas beds, ornamented with a 
straw pillow and covered with a coarse domestic sheet, 
I have seen stretched in sleep or rest the greatest 
preachers in Southern Methodism. Not only were 
some of these men already famous but a number of the 
younger ones were destined to be distinguished. Out 
of that band came several bishops, nearly a dozen col- 
lege presidents, four or five authors, and a cluster of 
preachers who swept upward to the largest churches 
in the connection. 

In such a large gathering of preachers it was con- 
sidered a great honor to be called on to fill the pulpit 
a single time; and the distinction was marked indeed 
for one to be employed twice by the Committee of 
Public Worship. Such men as Doctors Wadsworth 
of Mobile and John Mathews of New Orleans, were 



An Ov^rcon:^idknt Pr^achejr. 193 

of course in great requisition, but there would be often 
sixty or seventy preachers who would attend the camp 
and leave without having had an opportunity to preach 
or lead a single meeting. 

This was before the time that one or two men 
would do all the preaching; and so with an unused 
seventy there would be twenty or thirty of the one 
hundred ministers who would be called upon to divide 
the pulpit labors and honors. 

For some reason this year the divine power seemed 
slow to fall. Doubtless there never had been greater 
discourses delivered at this camp on any previous 
year; but the heavens remained locked. So things 
dragged, or, rather, stood still until the seventh or 
eighth day. 

One afternoon the audience assembled at the 
ringing of the bell, to this unpopular and undesirable 
of all the other hours of worship. It was just after 
dinner and the people were as a rule disposed to be 
drowsy, and no star minister of the Gospel cared for 
this appointment, but dreaded it, and some even 
refused thus to be sacrificed, as they so regarded the 
matter. 

Taking my seat in the congregation I observed a 
preacher entering the pulpit whom I had not noticed 
before on the ground. His face was one of the 
meekest that I ever remembered to have seen. He 
a plain-looking man, commonly dressed, and seemed 



194 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



oblivious of himself and every one else. A minister 
near by whispered that he was stationed on a circuit 
in the Alabama Conference; that he was not much of 
a preacher, but was a good man. 

A brief study of the person referred to, not only 
confirmed but added to the remark, that here was not 
only a good but a very pious man. The countenance 
I looked upon was not simply good ; it was a holy 
face ! 

I was unaccountably drawn to and interested in 
this humble appearing person in the pulpit. I noticed 
he prayed on both knees in his private supplication, 
and that he remained bowed in this converse with God 
at least two minutes. Then I had another view of 
the shining face, saw the man's reverent handling of 
the Bible, heard his simple, unaffected reading of 
a hymn, and listened to his quiet but solemn pleading 
face to face with God for his message and the people. 

His text was i Cor. 10:31, "Whatsoever ye do, 
do all to the glory of God." The sermon lasted exactly 
thirty minutes. In that time the preacher never said 
a single new, bright or smart thing; but from begin- 
ning to end he pressed the truth that we belonged to 
God, owed him every power of mind and body, as 
well as moment of time, and that every thought, word 
and deed of the Hfe should be for his glory. 

I would never be able to describe the effect of 
this discourse. As the quiet-faced, solemn-toned 



An OvEiRCONifiDDNT Pr-i:ache:r. 195 



speaker proceeded, a strange influence came from 
above on the congregation, and every soul seemed to 
be listening breathlessly to the simple, undisputed 
statements of this man, who looked like he belonged 
to another world and was pleading for a kingdom out 
of sight. 

When he made the altar call scores upon scores of 
people rushed forward and fell down at the mourner's 
bench with sobs and cries. There were twenty-five 
or thirty conversions in a few minutes. Nearly forty 
preachers were at the altar, most of them weeping 
bitterly. The writer vv^as among the bowed down 
class. Even then I wanted holiness, but did not 
obtain the grace, as the preacher of the hour simply 
described the life, but did not point out the way of 
its obtainment. Perhaps, like others, he did not know 
how to lead others into the blessing which I see now 
he undoubtedly possessed. 

Later in the afternoon several excited knots of 
ministers discussed the sermon, the preacher, and the 
wonderful results of that service. They all cordially 
agreed that he was no preacher; that his sermon did 
not deserve the name; that the text had not been 
handled as it should have been,' either exegetically, 
homiletically, psychologically or theologically; but on 
the other hand, it had been treated improperly, shame- 
fully, not to say diabolically. 

After being fully agreed upon this, some one spoke 



196 



Graphic Scene:s. 



up and said, "That may all be so, brethren, but he 
certainly got the souls." Whereupon, seeing the peo- 
ple standing saved and rejoicing in their midst, they 
could say nothing against it ! 



CHAPTER XXIIL 



A Faithi^uIv Physician — T^n DoIvI^ars — The: 
Yi:li,ow Fi:ve:r. 

The main residential street of Brandon was called 
Silk Stocking. Whether the long, narrow shape of 
the avenue inspired this title, or it came in playful 
recognition of "quality folks," as the colored people 
dub them, I do not know. During my pastorate it 
was never distinguished by any other name. 

On this town boulevard resided a doctor who has 
ever remained in my mind as an ideal Christian physi- 
cian and gentleman. He was not only a man of skill 
in his profession, inspiring perfect confidence in the 
sick room, but he commanded the highest respect of 
the community and stood first in the church of which 
he was a member. 

In the practice of medicine he diagnosed, pre- 
scribed and administered remedies in constant reliance 
upon God. And yet with the spirit of faith and prayer 
he carried about with him, he was the most practical 
of men. He had the union of faith and works most 
blessedly agreeing and accomplishing together in his 
daily life. Repeatedly after he had done all that was 

197 



Graphic Sc^ni:s. 



possible for the body, he has been known to kneel 
down and pray for the salvation of the soul of his 
very sick or dying patient. These supplications some- 
times accomplished what no apothecary or surgeon 
could ever achieve. Not a woman who employed him 
as the family physician but felt better and breathed 
easier when dismounting from his horse this man 
w^ould enter the house of sickness or approaching 
death, with his medical case in his hands, or saddle- 
bags on his arms. 

In the very prime of his useful life, this most 
valuable citizen suddenly sickened and died. In the 
funeral that followed, the doctor's saddle animal, a 
beautiful gray, was led fully caparisoned just behind 
the hearse. As the pathetic sight of that empty saddle 
and riderless steed following the dead master who 
lay still and white in the cofhn just ahead, broke on 
the view of the assembled town, I do not believe there 
was a dry eye in the great assemblage. 

Personally I felt that an irremediable loss had 
befallen the community. And in all the months that 
followed of my pastorate, I could not become accus- 
tomed to his absence. Even to this day, to think of 
the town, is to see that horseman with his grave, 
patient, thoughtful face, threading the streets and 
going in and out among the homes of the sick and the 
dying. He always appeared to me as a man who had 
some great private sorrow; but if he did, he never 



A Faithfui, Physician. 199 



mentioned it to any one, but went on cheering other 
burdened Hves and helping in his masterful way the 
suffering bodies of countless of his fellow creatures. 

Two Scripture verses carved on his tombstone 
would well describe the character and life of the man. 
One would be the sentence, "The Beloved Physician," 
the other, "He went about doing good." 

About this time my Board of Stewarts secured 
a small rented cottage as a parsonage home on Silk 
Stocking street. Just in front of us was a handsome 
residence and large shrubbery yard owned by a family 
who were well-to-do in the matter of earthly goods. 

In the afternoon late, this household, in common 
with others, would take a constitutional promenade on 
our avenue. Their preparations however, were 
deliberate, protracted and solemn indeed. They 
owned handsome furniture and beautiful pictures, 
while costly rugs and skins and lovely bric-a-brac 
adorned the parlor and library. These articles were 
entirely too valuable to be left even for half an hour 
without securing the house. So the evening parade 
was always preceded by a great locking and barring 
of doors, pulling down and fastening of windows; 
followed by the unchaining and turning loose in the 
yard of a ferocious watch dog. Then after all this 
work and worry, this benevolent preparation for the 
reception of tramps and burglars, the household in 
question would come forth on the village boulevard 



200 



Graphic Sci:nj:s. 



to find what pleasure they could in a stroll of four 
or five blocks in length. 

This performance was in such striking contrast 
to the custom of the little parsonage dwelling across 
the street, as to excite the profound amusement of any 
observer. In the parsonage home there was nothing 
a thief wanted; nothing worth stealing. So when 
we indulged in an afternoon walk, we left every win- 
dow and door wide open, feeling assured that on our 
return we would find everything untouched; and so 
we did. 

One month, after having been paid my salary, and 
in turn had settled all our little accounts and liabilities, 
I had ten dollars over. That night on retiring my 
conduct might have been surprising and amusing to 
some individuals, but not to rich people. Most care- 
fully I locked the door, and lowered and fastened the 
windows, though it was a warm night. My young 
wife asked with surprise what on earth I was doing. 
It was an embarrassing question. I hated to say that 
I feared somebody wanted and was after our ten 
dollars. I wished I could have remarked a change 
of weather. But there was no such alteration of the 
elements, and I could not tell a falsehood. My final 
reply was that we ought not to be so careless in leav- 
ing doors and windows open at night; that vicious 
characters might take advantage of it and rob us. 
The wife answered that we had nothing that anybody 



A Faith^uc Physician. 



201 



wanted. Evidently sHe Had forgotten the ten dol- 
lars ! 

Twice that night I thought I heard burglars break- 
ing into the house ; and before day had a bad case of 
nightmare. I dreamed that we were not only being 
robbed but murdered! And all this disturbance was 
brought about by ten dollars ! 

From that day to this I have possessed an intelli- 
gent sympathy for the rich. I can understand now 
why they chain doors, bar windows, have electric 
alarms, keep dogs, and employ private watchmen. 
They have so much to lose. And from the identical 
principle that I could not rest by day nor sleep without 
the horrors by night because a ten-dollar bill was in 
the house ; what must be the mental condition of peo- 
ple who have one hundred-dollar bills in their homes, 
not to mention tiger skins, Persian rugs, gold and 
silver plate and all kinds of valuables and treasure. 

The next day the ten-dollar bill went the way 
that most money has of going in meeting certain 
necessities of life. That night I paid no attention to 
the doors or windows, went to bed peacefully, and 
slept the sleep of the just, the innocent, and the con- 
sciously secure. From all indications, if the money 
had remained a week longer in the house, I would 
have had something like nervous prostration. 

This was the year that the yellow fever scourged 



202 



Graphic Sc^ne:s. 



the city of New Orleans beyond all precedent; swept 
far beyond its usual bounds and devastated the cities 
of Natchez, Vicksburg and Memphis, and then, con- 
trary to all past history, left the towns and penetrated 
the country. 

Those who could not and did not take refuge in 
the North, fled in great numbers to the piney woods 
and to the remotest rural districts. But the plague 
in certain places followed even here and pulled down 
its victims with relentless ferocity. A Methodist 
preacher living deep in the country lost his wife and 
eight children. The sight in his garden of nine fresh 
made graves proved a shock to the stoniest-hearted 
observer. The minister himself hovered on the edge 
of the grave for days; and his friends feared that 
even if he recovered, the spectacle of his desolated 
household would madden and kill him. 

All the towns in Mississippi were quarantined. 
The inhabitants were scattered to the four winds who 
were fortunate enough to escape in time. The popu- 
lation of these places became a mere corporal's guard, 
while countless thousands of city people boarded ni 
farm houses, crowded the country churches on the 
Sabbath, and made the forests ring with their religious 
songs, hymns and anthems. 

I stood at the union depot in Jackson one after- 
noon waiting for a train to go to Brandon. The 
town was quarantined, and had not yet been fright- 



A Faith^uIv Physician. 



203 



fully visited by the plague, as happened soon after. 
The whole land was filled with gloom. A great black 
thunder storm was gathering in the south. Just then 
a train from New Orleans, forbidden by the author- 
ities to stop, swept by, sending forth a dismal roar 
from its whistle as it rushed past. The train had 
left the death-smitten city of New Orleans only a 
few hours before, and seemed almost to have escaped 
from the black, lowering cloud that was flashing and 
thundering in the distance, and was flying like a 
frightened fugitive northward with its note of alarm 
and distress. 

Hundreds of people were at the station when this 
incident occurred. I have never forgotten the 
grave, troubled faces of that hour, the melancholy 
and awe produced by those rushing, moaning cars, 
while the coming storm seemed prophetic of a greater, 
blacker tempest that overhung the land. 

In the town of Brandon all citizens who could go 
were requested to leave. Hardly fifty people were 
left, nearly every one of them men, and most of them 
unsaved. I determined to remain with this band and 
live or die with them. I placed, however, my young 
wife and our three children, Reed, Maude and Guy, 
in a pleasant country home at what was considered a 
safe distance from the town. 

In the two or three months which followed, the 
silence and loneliness of the forsaken community was 



204 



Graphic Sc^nks. 



almost indescribable. At night not one house in ten 
had a light. During the day, hours would pass with- 
out seeing a single soul upon the street. A handful 
of men used to sit on a certain corner in the town 
square, whittle sticks, tell war stories, and look blue. 
Silk Stocking was utterly forsaken, and altogether 
unillumined after dark^ with the exception of my 
lamp, which streamed out on the gloom until after 
midnight as I poured over my Theological Course of 
Study for the fourth year. 

At last I saw that the yellow fever would not 
likely visit me, and offered my services to the sorely 
scourged city of Jackson. But Dr. Watkins, replying 
for the Board, refused, stating that not having had the 
disease, I would not only become a victim in a few 
days, but thereby add to the labors of an already over- 
worked band of nurses and physicians. 

The gifted Chas. B. Galloway, then a rising 
young minister stationed at Vicksburg, contracted the 
fever. His life was despaired of. He had even the 
black vomit, which had been considered the invariable 
precursor of death. His wife, also smitten with the 
disease, being told of his rapid sinking, had herself 
brought from another room and laid by his side that 
she might be near him as he drew his last breath. 

But hundreds, and we doubt not, thousands, of 
Christians begged God for the life of this brilliant, 
gifted, eloquent young preacher. Churches all over 



A Faithi^ui, Physician. 



205 



the land held special prayer meetings in his behalf, 
entreating the Lord to rebuke the disease and lift him 
up. 

And God heard, and answered from Heaven. He 
touched the man who was considered doomed by the 
w^orld and as good as dead ; and raised him up from 
the portals of the tomb, not only to continue his noble 
fight against the saloon and intemperance, to preach 
the Gospel of the Son of God on both sides of both 
oceans, to be chosen editor of the New Orleans Chris- 
tian Advocate, and to be elected one of the Bishops of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church South. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



A Se^cond Visit To Thi: S^a Shore Camp Ground 
— Stationed At Vicksburg. 

I was ordained elder in December, 1878, by Bishop 
Keener. After this completed my four year's pastorate 
at Brandon, and was then sent to Crystal Springs, one 
of the Stations in the Mississippi Conference. 

It was at this appointment that occurred the scenes 
described in the chapter, "A Pastoral Round," in the 
book called "Pen Pictures." 

It was a very blessed year with many accessions 
to the church and many more conversions. 

At this time there were a number of camp meetings 
in the Conference territory, at which gathered from 
ten and twenty up to one hundred preachers, according 
to the size and rank of the camp ground. 

For quite awhile the larger convocations held their 
own with the smaller Feasts of Tabernacles, as to 
spiritual power and commensurable results in the line 
of salvation. But rival star preachers, and the sum- 
mer resort feature slowly but surely sapped the 
strength and stole away the glory of the big camps, 
and the drift was finally unmistakably toward a mere 
summer outing and Chautauqua assembly. 

206 



Stationed at Vicksburg. ^207 



Before this Ichabod condition had taken place, 
I visited the Sea Shore Camp Ground for the second 
time. 

On the first occasion of attendance, mentioned in 
a previous chapter, I had been preaching several years, 
and being wonderfully well pleased with what was 
considered my ministerial success and what the 
brethren said about my pulpit ministrations, I was 
quite surprised not to say disappointed that the Com- 
mittee on Public Worship did not wait on me immedi- 
ately on arrival and request me to fill one of the lead- 
ing hours. But these same individuals did not do so 
on the first day, nor the second, third, fourth, fifth and 
even the sixth; until I felt that some mistake was 
taking place, and that surely they had not heard how 
I had been in demand in a number of towns, nor how 
my preaching talent was continually developing. 

Two more measures of time of twenty-four hours 
each rolled by, and it certainly seemed that I would 
not enjoy the exalted honor of standing on the his- 
toric platform of Sea Shore Camp Ground. But for- 
tunately for my miserable pride, over fifty preachers 
left the camp for their charges, and so at last on the 
ninth day, the committee being short of workers, came 
to me and requested that I should officiate at the 
morning hour of eleven. 

As my swollen sense of self-importance had been 
greatly reduced by its long delay, and I was quite 



208 



Graphic Scens:s. 



contrite over my egotism, the Lord was pitiful and 
gracious and so used the young preacher, that there 
was quite a victory at the ahar; twenty souls being 
converted. The pulpit subject was "The Four Looks] 
Toward Sodom." 

And now again as has been said, after the lapse of 
five years I was visiting the self-same camp ground. 
But what a change had taken place in the preacher! 
God had been busy with me in all these long 
months, and now with an humble heart and shrinking' 
spirit I came on a scene where thousands of people 
were encamped by the sea, and an hundred preachers 
filled the platform or lined the seats in front of the 
altar. 

I took a vacant place some distance back, glad ta 
hear the Gospel come from the lips of others, and 
equally willing and even anxious to be unheard and 
unbeheld myself. As I recall that second visit, I was 
living close to Christ, felt like sitting at the feet o£ 
the brethren assembled there, and never had a single 
desire to come to the front and be put forward in any 
prominent way. I was perfectly content to listen, 
and be overlooked. Truly, a great transformation 
had taken place in me since my first attendance. 

But only mark the unexpectedness of events and 
the strangeness of God's dealings. I had not been on 
the ground one hour when I was invited by the Com- 



Stationed at Vicksburg. 1209 



mittee on Public Worship to preach. Surely the hum- 
ble shall be exalted. 

Each time I filled the pulpit at this camp that year, 
God was pleased to crowd the altar and save a num- 
ber of souls; fifty in all. One subject was, "Walking 
with God," and another, "The Retributive Judgments 
of God." 

At the close of this year's pastorate I was sent by 
the Bishop and Conference to Vicksburg. 

This is the most strikingly beautiful and historic 
city in the state. At that time the mile-wide Missis- 
sippi made a most impressive bend of ten or fifteen 
miles, by which the city could be kept in view for 
several hours. Built on a range of lofty hills, Vicks- 
burg would appear by day with street above street 
like terraces, of trees and buildings; and by night 
long lines of twinkling lights rising from the river 
front to the brow of the highest eminence made the 
city even more attractive and beautiful. To see it 
rise up in the distance from the deck of an approach- 
ing steamboat, or fade away and sink out of sight, as 
the vessel swept southward towards New Orleans, 
was a spectacle never to be forgotten, and a picture 
worthy to be hung in the mental gallery by the side 
of the loveliest views and landscapes of earth. 

Gen. Grant tried with his canal to deflect the big 
current and destroy this Bend; but what he could 



210 



Graphic Scenes. 



not do, Nature did. The great, imposing Bend is a 
thing now of the past. That mighty flood called the 
Father of Waters in the time of an overflow cut across 
the isthmus, ploughed a new channel for itself through 
the alluvial soil, and is now over a mile west of 
Vicksburg. It is still in view, but does not flow in 
front of the city, as of yore. I do not think that 
any earthly power could bring it back; and yet the 
disaster could have easily been prevented if the 
municipality had listened to the warnings of Nature 
and observant river men, and had taken the proper 
steps that were urged upon the people. But with 
characteristic Southern disposition to postpone, noth- 
ing was done, the calamity came, the Mississippi 
turned its face in another direction and Vicksburg sits 
forsaken and lamenting on the hills. 

United States engineers have with great skill and 
large expenditure of means and labor changed the 
course of the Yazoo River, and by a series of canals 
and woodland lakes brought it to flow in its smallness 
past the front of Vicksburg where the Mighty Missis- 
sippi, a mile wide, once used to roll its vast turbid 
current to the sea. 

But what a difference! 

Truly here is a sermon in pictorial form of a most 
powerful and lasting nature, showing the effect of 
neglect, the departure of greater blessings and the 
life settling down to the enjoyment of Yazoo stream- 



Stationed at Vicksburg. '211 



lets wHen we might have had mile wide Mississippi 
blessings, the very fullness of the Gospel of Christ. 

At Vicksburg occurred the famous siege with 
Pemberton and thirty thousand half starved Confed- 
erates on one hand and Grant and seventy thousand 
well-fed and well-armed United States soldiers on 
the other. 

Here the Government has a National Cemetery; 
and we doubt not, the most striking and colossal of all. 
In addition two military park-Hke roads have been 
run entirely around the city, following strictly and 
exactly the two lines of breastworks occupied by the 
attacking and defending bodies of troops. On these 
two roads the different States are erecting monu- 
ments in memory and honor of their dead who fell 
in this long, dreadful, fatal siege of six weeks. 

Vicksburg was also famous for being the starting 
point down the Mississippi towards Natchez and New 
Orleans of that perfect fleet of magnificent steamboats 
called floating palaces, the like of which in size, beauty, 
elegance, comfort, luxury, with string and brass bands, 
and carrying the aristocracy of the Old South, will 
never be seen again. 

Some of the names of the majestic and beautiful 
vessels still remain with me: the Charmer, Princess, 
Magenta, Magnolia, Ferd Kennett, Glendy Burke, 
Katie, Vicksburg, Eclipse, Natchez, and Robert E. 
Lee; but the steamers themselves have passed away 



212 



Craphic Scijnks. 



with tHe old regime, like the Feudal Castle, Trouba- 
dour, Knight Errantry and Chivalry of other days 
that have left us forever with the centuries in which 
they flourished. 

In this city I spent a year. God greatly blessed the 
twelve months' pastorate, and there were friendships 
made and affections born that will last through eter- 
nity. 

In this city and at this time I met "Mrs. Griddle," 
whose biography is to be found in my book called 
*Teople I Have Met." Event and incident abounded, 
but because so many of the actors in these scenes are 
still alive, it is doubtless best not to put the facts in 
print just now. 

During this pastorate there came the great bereave- 
ment of life described in "Pastoral Sketches" in the 
chapter called "The Martyr." 

In the large, beautful City Cemetery I have a 
15urial lot where Reed .and Guy are sleeping by the 
side of their mother. A brick wall with pilasters, 
an iron gate, a willow and two cedars mark the last 
resting place of half the family with which I came 
first as a pastor to Vicksburg. So the place has 
naturally a great hold upon mind and heart, and 
here I would like to end my days, and here at last I 
would love to be buried. 

Among the members of my congregation was Dr. 
C. K. Marshall, a preacher already referred to, who 



Stationed at Vicksburg. 



213 



ranked side By side with Bishop Bascom in splendid 
appearance, oratory and eloquence of the highest 
order. 

In regard to the physical man he had a leonine face 
and the bearing of a king. He would be singled out 
in any audience and command instant attention. His 
fame as a speaker was so widespread and national in 
its character, that no church North or South where 
he was advertised to preach could accommodate the 
crowd. Times without number he had to be brought 
into the building through a back window or portal, 
so great would be the jam at the front door and on 
the street. 

If he had stayed in the Annual Conference he 
would have been elected a bishop, and also proved the 
greatest of them all, but on account of family affairs 
and great property interests he located and lived in 
his own house in Vicksburg, a beautiful home sur- 
rounded with large forest trees and reminding one 
of Mt. Vernon. 

When the writer was a lad of six or eight, Dr. 
Marshall visited Yazoo City and preached to an over- 
flowing audience as usual. In the afternoon he was 
walking on the streets holding my hand, when the 
church bells began to ring over the town. He asked 
me what they said, and I confessed that I could 
not interpret the iron language, when with his eyes 
full of tears and face aglow he replied, they say: 



214 



Graphic Sce:n^s. 



"'The Lord is risen indeed^' — "The Lord is risen 
indeed" 

It certainly seems very strange that I, long after 
this, should be the pastor of such a king among men, 
such a peerless prince among preachers. 

After I left Vicksburg and went to other cities 
he used to occasionally visit and write to me. In one 
letter he wrote a year before his death he mentioned 
a severe illness he had passed through. He said, "I 
went down to the banks of Jordan, brushed the dew 
on its grassy shore, looked over into the Heavenly 
Canaan and then — came back." 

He lost much of his property toward the last, 
buried many of his friends, and like the rest of us 
tasted a number of bitter disappointments. A tender, 
thoughtful and sweet melancholy came upon him. 
He would take his cane and walk frequently to the dis- 
tant City Cemetery, and spend hours among the tombs 
and monuments. His devoted daughter regretted to 
see this, and said in a loving, chiding voice, "Father, 
why do you go out so often to the graveyard?" When 
his eyes gushed with tears and he replied with a 
choking voice: 

"Daughter, I have more friends lying asleep out 
there, than I have here living in the city." 

A few months after that he went down to the 
brink of Jordan again, and this time did not come 
back. He crossed over I am told with a smile, and 



Stationed at Vicksburg. 21s 

2L great light on his face; he entered the city where 
the King knew and loved him; the gates of pearl 
closed behind his form, and as Bunyan would say, we 
saw him no more. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



A Sti:amboat Occurre:nc^. 

The Robert E. Lee was the largest, swiftest and 
I most palatial steamboat on the Mississippi River for 
I a number of years following the "Surrender." There 
were other magnificent steamers approximating her 
in size, elegance and beauty, but still the Lee was felt 
to be at the head of this wonderful fleet of river craft 
that plowed the waves of the mile-wide Mississippi 
from New Orleans to Vicksburg. Other boats of 
lesser size went to Memphis and St. Louis, but the 
flotilla of palaces we are writing about went no 
farther north than Vicksburg. 

t The Lee made weekly trips, and her departure 
from Vicksburg for the Crescent City near the Gulf 
always drew a crowd to the wharf. As the last solemn 
toll of the bell sounded, with her guards crowded with 
passengers, officers conspicuous on the hurricant roof, 
fifty deck hands gathered at the bow near the jackstaff, 
the mammoth steamer with majestic movement would 
sweep into midstream, and then with prow pointed 
southward, steam out of sight down the river with 
great black clouds of smoke pouring out of the tall 

.216 



A Stejamboat Occurri:nc^/ 21;^ 

chimneys, while the negro roustabouts sang a wild, 
weird river song that tingled the blood and filled the 
eyes with tears. 

While I was pastor at Vicksburg, this favorite 
steamboat of the public took its last trip. Hundreds 
on the wharf who watched her disappear around the 
bend a mile or more away, little dreamed that her 
stately form would never be beheld again and her 
river career would end in a few hours. 

At two o'clock that night the telegrams began to 
pour in from Rodney and Waterproof that the Lee 
had caught fire and burned up at one o'clock. 

Heartbreaking were the histories of that night on 
the ill-fated steamer, while to those who received the 
tidings from distant cities, towns and homes, sorrows 
came that time has never yet been able to heal. One 
of the melancholy happenings on the boat I have 
inserted in "Pastoral Sketches." 

But the object of this chapter was to mention an 
occurrence of that night which to us has always been 
freighted with deep spiritual significance. 

It seems that when the boat caught on fire, Captain 
Campbell, seeing the impossibility of extinguishing it, 
sent the second clerk flying down the long saloon into 
which scores of staterooms opened, with orders to 
strike on as many doors as he could and cry out aloud 
that the boat was on fire. 

As these great steamers abound so in the inflam- 



2l8 



Graphic ScE:Ni:s. 



mable and combustible, both in framework and in 
cargo, large as they are they burn up in ten minutes. 
So the young man took his life in his hands when he 
started on his long run with so many stops to make. 

It is evident that he did not have time to enter 
into an explanation or make entreaties or arguments ; 
his one commission and duty was to strike a door and 
cry, "The boat is on fire !" Then fly to another, do 
the same, and so rescue as many as he could while try- 
ing to save himself. 

Next day the happenings of that sad night were 
known all over Vicksburg, and especially the results 
of that clerk's race with death, his loud hammering 
on the closed doors and his startling midnight cry. 

One class of people aroused from slumber by the 
noise were very angry at having been so awakened. 
They freely expressed this indignation in their state- 
rooms, and to one another through the thin panels that 
separated the tiny apartments. 

They seemed to think the clerk was a drunken 
man and said it was an outrage that on a first-class 
steamer such a disgraceful thing should be allowed. 
That Hkely the captain knew nothing of the disorderly 
conduct, but they intended reporting the matter in 
the morning, the first thing. 

Poor fellows! They never saw another morning. 
When the sun next arose, it shone upon their dead 
bodies floating in the yellow waves of the Mississippi, 



'A Steamboat Occurr^ncs. 



219 



or consumed to an unrecognizable mass in the charred 
wreck of the Robert E. Lee, while their souls were in 
another world. 

A second class were highly amused at the rude 
awakening of the second officer. Like the others they 
thought it was a case of drunkenness or a practical 
~ joke. And so they were also heard laughing over the 
occurrence; and kept up their glee until the flames 
sweeping through the saloon and corridors and gang- 
ways, cut off their escape, and they sank with their 
suddenly arrested jollity and fun into a destruction 
by drowning or burning to death. 

A third class heard the warning, believed the cry 
was true, sprang into complete or partial apparel and 
just escaped with their lives. 

These were the ones who reported next day the 
sayings and conduct of the angry and amused ones 
on the doomed vessel. 

A fourth class heard the warning, but waited to 
hear it again and more clearly. But as the young man 
was running, and every stride took him and 
his message farther away, the words naturally 
became more indistinct from distance; and several 
were overheard to say that they could not now make 
out what he was saying and so placing their heads 
in a kind of reassurance on their pillows, in another 
five minutes they were swept down into a frightful 



220 



Graphic ScE)N^g. ^ 



death, and joined the angry and amused ones m their 
entrance upon eternity. 

A fifth class seem never to have heard a word of 
the clerk's cry nor a single rap of his agitated hand. 
They were not even conscious of any imminent dan- 
ger, but slept on and up to the moment of sudden 
death and opened their eyes in another world. 

It is remarkable how these five divisions I have 
mentioned cover in their representative capacity the 
entire race of man as regards their condition and con- 
duct under the call and warning of the Gospel and a 
true Christian ministry. 

As we see how many are asleep on this flying boat 
of a world, and we know it is on fire, and rushing to 
a final moment of utter destruction, we feel the need 
of many second clerks sent out by the Lord to beat 
at the closed heart doors of slumbering souls. And 
not only should there be many, but faithful men at 
that who will strike hard at the shut portal, and call 
and cry out unmistakably what God would have the 
sleeping soul to hear and do. 

Habits of resistance are formed so swiftly; charac- 
ter made so speedily ; life is so uncertain ; death is so 
sure ; perils so many and imminent ; that there hardly 
seems time and place for argument about such a mat- 
ter as salvation. It looks according to the Bible and 
the lives of great soul savers that there must be thrill- 
ing calls for immediate action, messages to make men 



A Stj:amboat Occurre:nc^. 221 



awaken and do so at once, and if not they are certain to 
go down into destruction. 

How we should pray for the second clerk in this 
kind of work. He, if truly sent of God, has a long 
run, lonely life and a hard, thankless task before him. 
Our supplications with our best wishes should go with 
him, that he may not weary in well doing, that he 
will not cease his warning cry because of anger or rid- 
icule, that he will not be discouraged nor fail to knock 
at other doors because there have been individuals 
and places that would not arouse in answer to past 
faithful warnings and appeals. 

Above all may the second clerk be saved himself. 
It would be sad indeed if after having rescued others 
he himself should be lost. As the great apostle has 
expressed it, 'Xest after having preached to others I 
myself should be a castaway." 

Under the Gospel call of true men we find as we 
have said the identical divisions beheld on the burning 
steamer. 

First there are those who become angry. 

It would be impossible to number the multitudes 
in this unhappy class. 

To be told that they are in sin and danger of Hell 
fire seems to infuriate them. Like Naaman they turn 
away in a rage from such messages, sermons and 
meetings. They believe, they say, in a quiet religion; 
they like a sermon that soothes them; they demand 



222 



Graphic Scenes. 



what they call decency and order in worship; they 
want no such appeals nor any warnings, and protest 
against excitement. 

But the boat is on fire ! 

They tell us of their popular pastor who is instruct- 
ing them with his sociological sermons ; and informing 
them with his lectures and blackboard illustrations ; 
and delighting them^ with his talks about his travels in 
foreign lands. They like that and enjoy that, they 
say. 

Yes — ^but the boat is on fire ! 

Recently in one of my meetings the tabernacle was 
pitched in the public square on which the porches and 
balconys of a hotel opened. There was much loud 
agonizing in prayer for the salvation of people at the 
altar, and equally loud and fervent praises when souls 
got saved and sanctified. 

It is wonderful how^ many travelling men in the 
hotel became angry at the noise they heard in the tent. 
The sound of preaching and praying, the noise of 
earnest supplication and fervent hallelujahs bringing 
warning to these spiritually sleeping souls seemed to 
infuriate them. On the veranda and at the table and 
in the office they fumed and fussed about it. They 
said it was all wrong ; that it ought not to be allowed ; 
that it was disgraceful, intolerable, abominable, etc., 
etc. 

But the boat was on fire! 



A Steamboat Occurrence, 



223 



I said, on the platform, to them one night : 
"You think there is too much noise over here. But 
only let that twelve hundred dollar house of yours 
catch fire and what a noise you would make ! How 
you would cry out — bring a ladder — hand me a bucket 
of water — fling me an axe here. Quick! Quick! 
Quick! 

"You say that kind of noise is all right. But here 
are precious immortal souls, each one worth according 
to Christ's words more than the whole world. And 
they are going down to a burning Hell, and to an ever- 
lasting destruction, and yet you insist on our being 
quiet about it and unmoved. No, sir ; the world itself 
is on fire ! and rushing on to a day of fire, and men 
are falling into Hell fire daily by thousands and mil- 
lions and we must and will cry aloud and spare not. 
We must awaken and save all we can. God has sent 
us out to do it and we will. 

A second class are the amused ones. They are 
highly tickled at the fervor, rush and excitement of 
a genuine revival. They seem to get a horrible enter- 
tainment out of God's way of warning and saving 
souls. 

I have seen such people in their finery, jewelry and 
powdered faces grinning and giggling at the most 
tremendous utterances of divine truth and the heart- 
broken cries of convicted souls at the altar. 

When a soul receiving pardon or holiness shouted 



224 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



the praises of God, I have seen them rush from differ- 
ent parts of the camp ground, or into the church from 
the street and sit or stand with their stolid animal 
faces criticizing and condemning sacred scenes of 
grace about which they knew no more than a creature 
of the brute world, until my soul fairly sickened within 
me at the revolting, idiotic spectacle. 

A third class hear the warning, arise and put on 
the garments of salvation and escape a burning Hell. 

I thank God that I find this division of mankind 
wherever I go. They are not as many as those who 
are angry, and who ridicule, and refuse to be saved. 
Christ said they were few compared to the multitude. 
But they are enough to pay for all the toil, difficulties, 
and sorrows that come to the true pastor and faithful 
evangelist. For their sakes we keep on knocking at 
the closed doors around us until suddenly some of the 
portals open, an illumined face shines upon us and 
the ransomed of the Lord exclaims with a happy smile, 
"I will go with you." 

A fourth division hear the warning — and then cease 
to hear. 

There was a time when the Gospel was felt to 
be a message from God; then it began with them to 
lose its clearness and force ; it seemed to be receding. 
After that it was a mere sound, and indistinguishable 
in its deliverances. Men thus left, in speaking of a 
messenger of full salvation, are heard trying to fathom 



' A Steamboat Occurrence:. 225 

what he said. Many in commenting on a clear and 
powerful sermon on holiness use language identical 
with that spoken in New Testament times in regard 
to Christ, "What did he say — we know not what he 
said." 

There is a fifth class that never seem to hear any- 
thing from the spiritual and heavenly side. No warn- 
ing affects them. No thundering of the law moves 
them. But perfectly immersed in the pleasure or 
pursuits of this world, they do not seem to have a 
thought, interest, or anxiety concerning another world. 

I find so m.any of this class in every place as I go 
around that at times I feel appalled. 

Ranged in ranks and blocks of pews or seats, they 
turn faces upon the speaker in v/hich there is not the 
slightest sign of the presence of a soul. Sometimes 
not even ordinary intelligence is present in that coun- 
tenance, and we lock upon lines and compact bodies 
of human beings where thought is not exercised, con- 
science is asleep, the soul dead and the Holy Spirit 
departed. The Gospel seems pov/erless to reach them. 
Every one of the different messages seems to fail. 
No matter who preaches, it is the same to the dull- 
eyed, heavy-faced congregation of the dead. The 
boat is on fire and sinking and they don't seem to 
know it. The clear, faithful VvT.rning sent by God 
through men does not alarm, tbem or appear even to 
have been heard. The sleeping company of the 



■226 



Graphic Scsneis, 



Robert E. Lee is beheld over again in every home, 
church, town and city of the land. 

Truly in view of the magnitude and dreadfulness 
of the life and character situation, I say again, God 
help the second clerk as he makes his long, lonely, 
thankless run through the spiritually sleeping thou- 
sands and millions of the earth. May he not become 
discouraged and grow silent, or faint by the way, 
but in spite of anger, ridicule, indifference, spiritual 
stupidity and every discouraging thing of time, be true 
to his Captain's commission, cry aloud and spare not; 
be true to the slumbering souls who cannot awaken 
themselves ; and finally be saved himself. 

How pitifully sad it would be at the Day of Judg- 
ment to find the name of the second clerk numbered 
among the dead; he who had saved others, had per- 
ished himself. 

May Heaven smile upon and bless and safely bring 
through everything, God's second clerk, no matter 
where he is preaching, living and toiling for the Mas- 
ter to-day. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



Stationed In New Orleans — Dr. W. E. Munsey 
^Tm Louisiana State Lottery. 

In December, 1882, I was sent by Bishop Wilson 
to New Orleans. My stay there was eight years ; four 
at St. Charles Avenue Church, now known as Rayne 
Memorial, and four at Carondelet street, now called 
First Church. 

Some of the incidents and events of these eight 
years in the Crescent City are to be found in Pastoral 
Sketches, Pen Pictures and Remarkable Occurrences. 
Much more has remained unwritten and unprinted for 
reasons that could well be imagined by the reader ; for 
anyone can easily conceive how many deeply interesting 
occurrences would take place in this famous French- 
American metropolis in the long sweep of eight years. 

I have only to dose my eyes for an instant, and I 
am back again in this historic, dreamy old city. Once 
more I see that widest of streets, Canal; the broad, 
mile-wide Mississippi rushing to the Gulf; the shores 
lined for miles with steam and sailing craft of every 
kind, and great vessels from every part of the world; 
the massive architecture of other days and nations; 

227, 



228 



Graphic ^cenijs. 



the gardens crowded with roses, and the great mag- 
nolia trees abloom with white blossoms as large as 
snowballs. I once more hear the echo of hand-organs 
up distant streets, and feel again the glory of the 
nights, lustrous with stars, balmy with the soft winds 
of the Gulf of Mexico, and melodious with the un- 
ceasing song of the mocking bird. 

The gentle, drowsy climate may have done mucK 
to give the musical drawl to the Southern woman's 
voice, may have had something to do with the languid 
grace of the men, and put a charm besides on every 
thing the eye falls upon, from the winding river, the 
forest-rimmed landscape to the outspread expanse of 
Bay, Sound and the Ocean itself. 

A pastor who had preceded me in my first charge 
in the city was Dr. W. E. Munsey. A more gifted, 
eloquent and remarkable man the South never pro- 
duced. His sermons were pronounced masterpieces 
by all the critics, and the effect of some of them on a 
congregation, notably the one on "The Lost Soul," 
was overwhelming. We have heard of audiences that 
on hearing this discourse and others of like nature 
would be in a stunned, bewildered condition, and 
seemed hardly able to leave the building. 

An additional feature of surprise connected with 
this man's oratory was that he had scarcely a single 
gesture; the polished sentences rolled from his lips, 
the thought in them doing the work while the body^ 



Stationed in Nj:w OrIv^^ans. 229 



was usually still and the arms hung motionless by the 
side. But while the people were awed and even 
confounded by the marvellous word pictures the 
speaker created, no one that we ever heard of was 
converted. 

Dr. Munsey wrote his sermons and memorized 
them. In view of their great length, elevated langu- 
age and mosaic structure, this was a fearful tax on 
his mind and slowly but surely brought disaster. 

Naturally, the man burdened with such a task as 
the delivery of two such lengthy masterpieces each 
Sunday, would be quick to avail himself of every 
excuse for not preaching. So that dozens of times 
in a single year the public would be disappointed, "Dr. 
Munsey was indisposed," "Dr. Munsey had a head- 
ache," etc., etc. But such was the charm of the man's 
oratory when he did preach, that the crowd continued 
to throng his church no matter how often before they 
had been disappointed in hearing him. 

In the intensity of thought in his study he had a 
way of twisting and pulling at his hair until finally 
his head was as smooth and bereft of hirsute adorn- 
ment as a billiard ball. To keep up and rally from the 
effect of his great pulpit and platform efforts he 
resorted to drugs of various kinds, and little by little 
one of our greatest men came down in clouds and 
physical wreck, and some thought to the lost soul 



230 



Graphic Sci:ne:s. 



condition he had so wonderfully described in the days 
of his pulpit glory. 

The last charge I believe to be untrue, for when 
his friends went into his sick room to visit him, they 
found him dead kneeling by the side of his bed. He 
had died in the attitude of prayer. 

Our first protracted meeting in New Orleans was 
quite successful for that city. But a second effort in 
that line did not end so happily, as right in the midst 
of the Gospel battle I contracted a case of mumps. It 
was wonderful how this fact emptied the altar rail. 
My seekers and penitents were willing to come and 
leave their sins, but decidedly opposed to taking away 
a case of throat trouble in exchange. .Thus abruptly 
ended one of the most promising meetings I ever 
undertook in the Crescent City. 

I soon became conscious that all the churches were 
given to the practice of holding church entertainments 
for the purpose of raising money. Knowing well 
that there is scarcely anything which more thoroughly 
saps the liberality and deadens the spiritual life of any 
congregation than this, I fired a forty-four pounder at 
the evil from the pulpit, and published a booklet called 
^Twenty Objections to Church Entertainments." 

This led to the alienation of a number of eccle- 
siastical friends, but brought great blessing to our 
church, and the unclouded favor of Heaven upon my 
soul. 



[Stationed in Ne:w Ori^^ans. '231' 



On being stationed at Carondelet Street Church, 
having completed four years at Rayne Memorial; I 
began to study the Louisiana State Lottery question. 

It would be perfectly impossible to convey in this 
chapter the dreadful influence for evil, and the 
frightful pov^er possessed by this corporation of 
Iniquity. 

Only a few men constituted its supreme council, 
but the Lottery Company through them ruled the city 
and State as no dictator ever did in the dark ages. 
Most of the stockholders were not known to the pub- 
lic, but all the same the Company managed the com- 
monwealth. The judiciary and both branches of the 
Legislature were alike sold out and owned by it; the 
governor of the state was either helpless or their tool ; 
while lawyers by the score in the city were on their 
list of retained attorneys. It seemed to be a hopeless 
enslavement, and the conscience of the people appeared 
asleep or dead. 

The Lottery Company, licensed by the State of 
Louisiana, had a Monthly Drawing (with a capital 
prize of one hundred thousand dollars) which drained 
the United States ; and a Daily Drawing which finan- 
cially bled and morally corrupted the City of New 
Orleans. The price of tickets in this daily gambling 
investment was such that the laboring classes, servants 
of the household and children of almost every home 
were enticed, became inoculated with the gambling 



232 



Graphic Sc^ni:s. 



spirit, and saved, scraped, begged and purloined in 
countless instances the quarter, or half dollar which 
would enable them to take a chance on "the turning 
of the wheel." 

There was as little likelihood of one's drawing the 
monthly capital prize as a person's being struck hy 
lightning on a clear day ; or of realizing a bonanza in 
the smaller daily drawing as of obtaining the tradi- 
tional bag of gold at the end of the rainbow ; because 
prizes were so few, blanks so many, and the ticket 
buyers numbered hundreds of thousands each day, and 
ran into the millions on the day of the Great Drawing 
of the month. 

It was marvellous how the city became corrupted 
on this line. Servants intrusted with market money 
would levy on it for the Daily Drawing. Money given 
to children went straight to the Lottery in the same 
way. Poverty-stricken families in the wild hope of 
getting suddenly rich would deny themselves the 
necessities of life to buy a piece of paste board repre- 
senting imaginary wealth, which hung in attractive 
rows and colors from hundreds of office windows in 
the city. 

The Lottery Company becoming enormously rich; 
saw their shares of stock which cost originally one 
hundred dollars, run up to eight hundred dollars, nor 
would their holders sell them even at that figure. A 
few shares meant a handsome income. 



Stationed in Ne:w ORiv:eANS. 233 



At the same time the Company tO' awaken kindly 
feelings, if not a spirit of toleration upon the part of 
the community it was plundering, would now and then 
make a public gift to the city, which would not repre- 
sent an infinitesimal part of the money they had taken 
from the people, not to speak of the moral injury they 
had inflicted, nor the public shame and dishonor they 
had brought on community and state. 

One of these gifts was the Howard Library Build- 
ing, which the city received with fulsome praises and 
thanks, licking thereby the feet that had kicked, 
trampled upon and degraded them. The people did 
not seem to see that it was a kind of hush money. Or 
that it was like the highwayman taking ten thousand 
dollars from a man and then presenting the victim 
with fifty cents accompanied with an air of great liber- 
ality and generosity. 

Another gift was a bored well in La Fayette Square 
which was intended to be artesian and spout forth a 
beautiful stream; but the waters under the earth 
refused to be sold out like men on the earth, and would 
not gush and splash and flash for the legalized Board 
of Thieves in the city. Instead of shooting up in 
the air, a little dejected stream looking like dripping 
tears appeared. And this was the nearest approach 
to a fountain. I never passed it without a smile, and 
felt like going over and patting the iron tube on the 
head and uttering my approval and admiration. 



234 



Graphic Scj^ne^s. 



THe people as viewed at this time seemed either 
unconscious of their degradation, or apathetic, or had 
become hopeless and settled down to accept what they 
regarded as the inevitable and irremediable. 

The pulpit partook of the same spirit of unconcern 
or despair. Not a line in secular or religious papers 
appeared against this monster, which Octopus or 
Devil Fish like, had stretched its great limbs over the 
United States, and then laid myriads of tentacles 
touching almost every town and home in the land, and 
began sapping the financial strength and sucking the 
life blood of all. 

While multitudes were ruined, the Octopus thrived, 
grew stronger every day, wallowed around in its fat 
insolence, and breathed its defiance at any and all, until 
a great dread came upon the city about this viewless 
but all powerful Corporation that was not only able 
to crush an individual but could make governors," 
judges, members of the legislature and the whole legal 
force of New Orleans do as it willed. 

I gave public notice that I would attack this Cor- 
poration of Iniquity from the Carondelet pulpit on a 
certain Sabbath. The big church was crowded, and 
many of my friends thought that I would be assassi- 
nated before the address could be delivered. 

It happened to be the Chinese New Year, and so 
•when right in the midst of the hour and a half phil- 
lippic, a fearful explosion and uproar took place on 



Stationed in N^w OrIvE^ans. 235; 



the street in front of the building, there was great 
consternation in the audience, and many thought that 
the attack on the speaker and congregation had com- 
menced. 

I was so burdened and wrought up with the sub- 
ject in hand, that I scarcely paid attention to the noise 
outside until I heard a voice cry out from the vesti- 
bule to quiet the audience, that it was only the fire- 
works of the Chinese on their New Year. 

I have thought more than once since, how this 
first sermon preached against the Louisiana State 
Lottery must have sounded to the ears of the commun- 
ity, and been commented on, upon the dark shores of 
Hell. There had been a stillness for nearly twenty 
years, and then came the boom ! of a solitary cannon. 
It proved under God's blessing to be the deathknell of 
the Corporation that had reigned over and crushed 
New Orleans and Louisiana so long. 

Soon after the first attack, I made a second from 
the same pulpit to a large congregation, loaded down 
with additional facts, figures and arguments against 
the Louisiana State Lottery Company. 

Then I had the two addresses published in book 
form, and illustrated by the best newspaper artist 
and cartoonist in the city. I sat by his side and sug- 
guested every picture. This illustrated paper-back 
book was scattered in great quantities all over 
Louisiana and Mississippi, then into more distant 



Graphic Sc^ne:s. 



'States, while numbers were sent to Washington City. 

Helped by some legal talent that remained uncor- 
rupted in New Orleans, I showed up in these 
addresses and book the illegalities of the State Lot- 
tery; and assisted by overwhelming facts, proved its 
debauching influence on the public, and its hurtful- 
ness in many other particulars. It was a black expo- 
sure indeed. 

It pleased God to bless the two addresses and the 
book called "The Louisiana State Lottery Company 
Examined, Exposed and Condemned." Preachers 
woke up everywhere and began to thunder against the 
legalized wickedness. Newspapers commenced train- 
ing their guns. Meetings were called all over the 
state. Tongues and pens got busy everywhere, and a 
bitter war with an aroused public conscience on one 
hand and vast unscrupulous wealth on the other, 
started, that was to rage several years before victory 
would come at last to the side of right and a true 
citizenship. 

The first meeting held against the Louisiana State 
Lottery consisted of seven individuals. Besides the 
writer, there was a merchant, an editor, a lawyer, a 
physician and two others. The meeting pledged to 
strict secrecy and held in a room near Common and 
Canal reminded me of a Guy Fawkes' plot. I will 
never forget the anxious looks, the lowered voices and 
the unmistakable fear of that first gathering. 



'Stationed in Nkw Ori.i:ans. ' 237 

This council lasted an hour, and we parted, each 
one pledged to , come again to the same place one 
week from that night accompanied with another per- 
son who could be implicitly trusted. The man I 
brought was Rev. J. T. Sawyer of New Orleans, one 
of the most fearless and aggressive members of the 
Louisiana ministry. 

At the second meeting resolutions were passed, a 
policy adopted, the membership increased, so that 
from fourteen of the second gathering we had in 
attendance on the third over thirty determined men. 

At the fourth assembly we numbered over seventy. 
The fifth coming together beheld fully one hundred 
and fifty resolute hearts. A public call was issued by 
them and the sixth convention revealed a hall packed 
with hundreds of citizens who were resolved that the 
war against the Lottery should not cease until that 
institution of corruption should be routed, the evil 
rooted up and cast out of their midst forever. 

This sixth gathering was such an inspiration to 
the public, that meetings denouncing the Louisiana 
State Lottery Company sprang up on every hand; 
speakers and preachers fairly flamed from platform 
and pulpit, and the public arose en masse. 

But even then, but for the United States Govern- 
ment, we never could have won the fight. The Lot- 
tery Company was so legalized by State law, so shel- 
tered by power in high places, was so strong in its 



238 



Graphic Sc^ne:s. 



vast wealth, was so assisted by corruption of different 
and many kinds, that all the Reform Movements 
would have failed, pitted against such a hydra-headedi 
and many-limbed monster. 

But appeals and petitions were made to the Gov- 
ernment at Washington, and the United States in: 
vindication of her outraged Postal Laws, came down 
to our relief and wiped out from our city, state and 
country forever, the most impoverishing, enslaving, 
debasing Corporation that ever saddened the heart, 
darkened the home and disgraced the history of the 
people of America. 



CHAPTER XXVIL 



Tut History Two CRui:r.i.Y Tre:ati:d Chii.dre:n: 

In the absence of the light of full salvation, it is 
natural that a Christian worker would have his atten- 
tion engaged and energies directed to striking at and 
cutting off branches of evil as seen in human life and 
conduct instead of aiming direct for the root of all 
transgression and iniquity — inbred sin. 

So I warred not only against Church Entertain- 
ments, and the Lottery Company, but lined myself 
up against every outward and public thing that I 
thought degraded and injured humanity or militated 
against its best interests in every realm. 

Thus it was I found myself a member of the 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 
Was speedily elected an officer, and entered heartily 
in the work seeking by platform addresses to arouse 
public sentiment, secure legislation that was needed, 
and when necessary by personal appeal on the street 
against brutality to God's dumb creatures who toiled 
so faithfully for us. 

Conscious that such inhumane treatment hurt the 
character and spirit of a man in a profounder way 
239 



240 



Graphic Sce:nes. 



than the physical nature of the animal was made 
to suffer, I worked with this two-fold thought and 
motive in my mind for some months in this Society; 
of course, not neglecting my labor for the salvation 
of souls in the pastoral relation. 

The organization had a small badge which bore a 
horse's head and the letters S. P. C. A. in bronze 
against black enamel. 

I was never partial at any time of adult life to 
wearing buttons, regalias, ribbons and such things. 
So instead of placing the badge on the outside, I wore 
it on the inside of my coat lapel, knowing I was not 
less the friend of brute creation, but simply hated 
going around looking like the side of a bill-posted 
fence. Nevertheless, the hidden button served me in 
excellent stead on a certain trying occasion. 

At this time of my pastorate my heart was unus- 
ually tender towards children. One cause was the 
death of my son Guy, and the other the pathetic his- 
tory of 'Xittle Jack," both of which biographies I have 
recorded in "Pastoral Sketches." Any sight of cruelty 
and barbarity to a child was simply unbearable to me. 

One day I was walking on one of my pastoral 
rounds through a part of the city south of Jackson 
street and only a few blocks from the river, when I 
heard such shrieks and screams proceed from a dwell- 
ing on the opposite side of the thoroughfare that I 
came to a sudden stop, feeling that I would be guilty 



Two Cruelly Treati^d Chii,dri:n. 241 



before God to pursue my way regardless of the agony 
being inflicted by some one on another not over fifty 
feet from' me. The shrieks came evidently from a 
little girl or child, and the blows were those of a 
cowhide, and the voice was that of an infuriated 
woman. 

A number of female heads were thrust out of a 
dozen windows near by, and addressing one of the 
women I said : 

"What on earth do you suppose is happening over 
there?" 

The lady replied with a solemn grief-stricken face, 
"It is a woman whipping her little step-daughter of 
ten years of age. She does it every day of the world. 
It nearly breaks my heart to hear that cruel beating 
going on." 

"Where is the child's father?" I asked. "And 
why does he permit it?" 

The woman wiped her eyes and said: 

"He doesn't know it. She never punishes the 
child until he is away down town. And the little 
thing is so cowed that she is afraid to tell her father 
lest the woman should kill her." 

"Why don't some of you go over and stop this hor- 
rible affair?" I pursued as new blows could be heard 
^ailing and fresh agonizing screams came from across 
the street. 



'242 



Craphic 'Sce:ne;s'. 



"We dare not. We have no authority. And it 
is none of our business." 

"Well," I cried, "I'll make it mine, God helping 
me." And with that I crossed the street and gave a 
terrific Judgment Day knock at the front door. 

Instantly the blows ceased, and the screams sub- 
sided to wails not less pitiful to hear. Then as no 
one came, I gave several other bangs to the portal 
and heard reluctant steps approaching. Then came 
a hard defiant voice inside, "What do you want ? And 
who are you?" 

With every nerve tingling and keyed up, and feel- 
ing I could meet a thousand muscular angry Amazons 
I replied: 

"I have come to stop your barbarous treatment of 
that child. Let me in at once !" 

To this there was a voluble and furious negative 
response; when noticing that the window shutters 
opened to the floor and that the sash was raised I 
quickly drew back one of the blinds and stepping iij 
the parlor with a stride, stood before the amazed, 
guilty-looking, and yet still defiant woman. 

The child from a back room saw me enter and flew 
to me, a stranger, for refuge, sobbing violently. The 
marks on her half stripped body were as large as the 
finger in breadth and covered her sides, back and 
shoulders. 

Completely ignoring the woman I asked the child 



Two Crue:lly Trkatkd Chii,dri:n. 243 

why she had been beaten, and between her sobs and 
catches of breath she with a frightened glance at the 
ogress standing glaring by, said, "For pulling a flower." 

"And so," I said, turning to the woman, "for a 
single flower you cut and slashed and beat and bruised 
this poor little helpless child. Are you a fiend in 
human shape ? Have you no pity, no heart, woman ?'* 

Drawing near to me with the cowhide in her hand 
as if she meditated an attack on me, she cried out: * 

"By what right and authority do you come into 
my house interfering with private ai¥airs?" 

She certainly had the vantage ground here in a 
legal and social sense. But "The Angel" that has 
redeemed me all my life and delivered me in the most 
perilous of times and trying circumstances, stood by 
me on this occasion. Anyhow I have always attri- 
buted the thought that flashed and the quick act that 
followed to him. 

Facing boldly toward the infuriated domestic 
Singe Cat in skirts, I quickly raised the collar of my 
coat and turned my Horse Head Badge upon her 
astonished and overwhelmed vision. 

A more sudden and complete collapse of a person 
I never beheld in all my life ! 

The Badge was too far from her eyes for her to 
recognize the figure on it and the letters, but she felt 
it was the insignia of oflice, the symbol of some high 
police or detective authority whose headquarters were 



244 



Graphic Sc^ne:s. 



perhaps in Washington City itself; and here doubtless 
was one of its leading officers, if not the Mogul him- 
self. And so there was nothing to do but to go down. 

And down she did go in such humility of mien, 
real or simulated; such contrition, genuine or false, 
and made such promises, true or not, of never beating 
the child again, of being kind and motherly to it, 
that my own heart was quite melted, and I felt justi- 
fied in finally walking away and even encouraged to> 
believe that the woman would keep her word, and 
that I had accomplished a great work of mercy on 
that exciting afternoon. 

As to the exact moral rectitude of drawing that 
Horse Head Badge on the woman I have had mis- 
givings. I question if I could have done it a few 
months later when the light of full salvation came. 

Still there are pleas that might be made for this 
emergency act. One would be, that while our Society 
was for prevention of cruelty to animals and not chil- 
dren, yet children possess an animal nature in common 
with the brute creation, and so our Constitution and 
By-Laws might have been stretched in order to cover 
this case. 

Again we see Paul in a time of immediate peril 
rescuing himself by an appeal to what was not the 
real matter before the Council or Sanhedrim, and yet 
which resulting as he foresaw in a division, saved his 
life. 



Two Cru^i.i.y Tr^at^d Chii^dr^n, 245' 

A still higher plea is in the fact that here was a 
case of inhumanity and brutality going on that should 
be stopped. Let the reader answer if this was not 
accomplished? Then ought it not have been per- 
formed in a way to secure not only a present but 
future deliverance, putting an awe on the transgressor 
in such a manner that the offense would not likely be 
repeated ? Evidently this was the case. 

Then I put the matter before the whole jury of 
readers and ask how they would have acted, and could 
they under the like exciting circumstances have done 
any better? 

And so we rest this case. 

Some weeks later in still another part of the city 
I had another experience with a little one, with which 
I finish this children chapter. 

I was on a street car one day in the residential 
part of the city when I saw a colored nurse, a woman 
of about fifty years of age, with a heavy slap of the 
hand knock a white child from the top of a porch 
down a flight of six or seven steps to the brick pave- 
ment below. The little thing was not over two years 
old and lay after falling a crumpled heap of white 
muslin, on the ground. 

I leaped from the car while it was in motion and 
walked rapidly towards the house. The negro woman, 
alarmed at her deed, was picking the child up as I 
approached, and undoubtedly reading the indignation 



246 ' Graphic Scknks. 



in my face began a crooning or low hymn singing, 
an invariable custom with her race when in trouble 
or perplexity from detection in guilt. 

As I drew near, the child was giving low moans 
and stifled sobs while held in a leaning position against 
the aproned lap of the nurse. Stopping a moment, I 
^aid: 

"What made you knock with your big heavy hand 
this little innocent child down the steps?" 

The woman's eyes fell before mine while she mut- 
tered : 

"She wouldn't min' me. An' I nuvver 'tended to 
hurt her." 

"Is her mother in the house?" 
"No," was the sullen reply. 

"Where is she?" I asked, and before she could 
reflect long enough to deceive me, she pointed to the 
neighboring dwelling. 

I rang the bell and a lady presented herself. I 
lifted my hat and asked if I could see the lady who 
lived next door, and she replied yes, that she was 
in the parlor paying her a visit. 

On being ushered into the room I saw a handsome 
young woman with fluffy blonde hair engaged in some 
fancy needlework. I introduced myself by name, and 
as pastor of Carondelet Street Methodist Church. I 
told her that in passing on the cars I had seen her 
nurse strike her child such a blow that she had fallen 



Two Cruivi.i.y Tri:ati^d Childri^n. 247 



down the steps and I believed was seriously hurt. 

To my amazement the mother in her reply paid 
no attention to the news I had brought her, but seemed 
struck and pleased somehow with my name. 

"You say your name is Carradine. Are you 
related to the Carradines of Natchez." 

I replied very drily and with a sickened heart, 
"Yes, madam." 

"Is Alex Carradine your cousin?" she asked with 
an eager, expectant and pleased expression on her 
face. 

"Yes," I managed to utter; "yes, I am his cousin, 
but I came in to let you know that as I was passing 
on the car I saw your servant knock your child down 
the steps so that her head struck heavily the brick 
pavement." 

"Well, well," the woman replied in a musing tone, 
"I didn't think Aunt Dilsy would have done that. I 
will have to speak to her about it." Then with her 
face lighting up with a gleam of some kind of reminis- 
cent pleasure, she added : 

"And so you are Mr. Alex Carradine's cousin?" 

She had scarcely pronounced the last word, when 
utterly disgusted with this sham and shell of a 
mother, this female gloating over early courtships and 
insensible to her own child's suffering near by, I sud- 
denly arose, gave a very stiff bow and left the house. 

About a month later while paying a pastoral call, 



248 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



a young lady member of my congregation said to me : 
"While I was at a Tea a few evenings since I 
heard your name mentioned by some ladies sitting in 
a group. I bent forward to listen and one was say- 
ing, that several weeks ago you were in a street car 
and saw a nurse knock a child down the steps to the 
pavement. That you instantly left the car, called on 
the mother and informed her as to the occurrence, 
and she seemed to feel no alarm. But that night the 
child went into convulsions and died the next day. 
This is what the lady said. Is it so?" 
And I answered with a broken voice : 
*Tt is all true about the cruel nurse, the unnatural 
mother, and what I said and did. But I did not know 
that God had taken the poor little victim to Heaven." 

The reader can well imagine, that while I had 
been fighting Church Entertainments, and warring 
against the Lottery, and making a campaign in behalf 
of animals, that not only now, but especially then, I 
was glad and thankful from my heart that I had taken 
time to make a kind of crusade in behalf of the chil- 
dren, and do the best I could for the little ones. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



Th^ Stre:j:t Cries Nw Ori^^ans. 

Next to the garden display of roses and flowers, 
the white bloom of the magnolia, and the yellow of 
the mock orange, that which will most impress the 
visitor is the street sounds and cries on the streets of 
New Orleans. 

The hand-organ with its Italian bearer and per- 
former, heard on the distant corner, up shadowy 
thoroughfares on dreamy summer afternoons and in 
starry nights, makes one of the peculiar and striking 
features of the Crescent City. At such times the 
strains always produce a melancholy effect for some 
reason I can hardly explain. But on the Sabbath day, 
they seemed to be out in force and were most painfully 
disturbing to the church service and distracting as 
well to the would-be worshippers. It would be diffi- 
cult to describe the mental torture produced on the 
preacher, when right in the midst of a sermon that 
was winning its way to the head and heart of the peo- 
ple, one of these wind instruments would suddenly 
blare forth in front of the church door, and fairly 
make the air quiver and the building echo and resound 

249 



250 Draphic Sci:ne:s'. 

with Annie Rooney, Mary of Argyle, Two Little Girls 
in Blue, Wearing of the Green, and the more blithe- 
some strains of Dixie. 

As the eye took in the distressing fact that num- 
bers in the audience were following the tunes played 
outside, as the brain strove to carry on a line of logi- 
cal thought, while another part of the intellect was 
paying attention to the medley of organ melodies, 
and still another section of the understanding was 
wishing the musician would go, and wondering why 
some steward did not request him to move on, the 
[voice would naturally rise on the suffering scale notes, 
and beads of agonized perspiration stand all over the 
forehead. 

I was about to say that these street sounds created 
more annoyance and genuine mental distress to the 
speaker in the pulpit than any other of the distractions 
that did and could possibly take place at that hour. 
But a pastor in the same city told me of a disturbance 
which in its patience trying and equilibrium upsetting 
quality, he ranked above the hand organ. 

He said that one beautiful April morning, with all 
the church doors and windows open to receive the 
balmy flower laden air, that just as he read his text 
and had opened his mouth to make his first remark, a 
strawberry vendor in a stentorian voice, just in front 
of the wide-flung church portals, cried out, "F-i-n-e 



Strs:e:t Crii^s Ori^^ans. 251 

S-t-r-a-w-K-e-r-r-i-e-s ! StrawberriesJ Strawberries ! 
Strawberries !" 

The first two words were pulled out in a long, 
nasal india rubber like way ; while the last three were 
quickly enunciated in a fourth of the time. 

The pastor looked at his audience and every one, 
old and young, were smiling in the broadest fashion. 
The interruption coming when it did, and as it did, 
was too much for the gravity of a usually well behaved 
congregation. 

Of course these were days before full salvation 
had been experienced and before the many varied 
trying experiences that belong to the public ministry 
of the evangelistic life had come to strengthen, 
toughen, fill with resources, and make the preacher 
steady and ready under every trying circumstance 
and an easy victor over every untoward and unex- 
pected condition and situation. 

In addition to the hand organs, the street cries of 
certain vendors and hucksters, most impressed me. 
I have never known a city that had such a variety as 
well as character to these thoroughfare business 
announcements. I soon found that in a sense they 
typified and classified various ministers of the Gospel. 

One was the stentorian cry over something that 
was next to nothing. 

The first time I heard this yell and whoop on the 
street I ran to the window to behold the finder and 



252 



Graphic Sce^nks. 



proclaimer of some great treasure. If I had been told 
that a gold mine had been discovered in the suburbs, 
or that a new star had burst on the sight, or any other 
astounding or gratifying intelligence, the whoop on 
the street was fully up to the magnitude of any such 
happening. 

Let the reader imagine the mental come-down on 
seeing a most ordinary looking colored person with 
a most extraordinary voice, whose stock in trade con- 
sisted of three "clothes poles" or some sassafras roots 
in a small gunny sack, the whole outfit not worth over 
a dollar. 

We all know Bro. Stentorian, who makes up in 
noise what he lacks in grace and knowledge. There 
w^as a time when the big whoop greatly impressed me 
in the pulpit. The loud, resounding voice seemed to 
promise great things ; but when the sermon was over, 
or the meeting had ended, we had a clear vision of the 
little mental gunny sack, and saw a great commotion 
had been made over a very small stock in trade, and 
over things that amounted to very little after 
all for our spiritual betterment and salvation. 

Another was the indistinguishable cry. 

The man so mouthed and mumbled the name of 
what he had for sale that one had to guess what it 
was, or run after him for explanation. 

Not a reader of these lines but has heard Bro. 
and Sister Mumbler in the prayer or revival meeting. 



Street Crie:s Ni:w Ori^^ans. 253 



They may be crying the wares of salvation, and may 
be praying or testifying all right, but one thing is 
certain that we never hear them. Moreover it is not 
in order to ask them what they said, when the perfor- 
mance is over. We only know that with a thousand 
present and anxious to hear, the voice did not carry 
beyond the next two pews. Or, requested to pray, 
they immediately put a handkerchief over their mouths 
or bowed their heads clear to the ground under the 
seat, and while I doubt not the wares were good, we 
failed to hear their names or anything about them. 

A third cry was one that tarried not. 

This man reminded me of a distracted comet. I 
never knew when to expect him, nor where he was 
going, nor how to head him off. He whizzed around 
a corner so rapidly that one could not well overtake 
him. Sometimes I wanted to buy the very things he 
had for sale and was proclaiming, but it actually 
seemed from his conduct, that for all his calling, he did 
not want to sell. I found it was folly to try to overhaul 
him. I tried rushing to the window, and in unclerical 
haste bolting out of the door and gate in pursuit, but 
repeatedly all I had was a vanishing glimpse of his 
form as he turned the corner one or two blocks away. 

It is no trouble to find this man's fellow and like- 
ness in the church ranks. The man who plants but 
will take no time to reap. The pastor who gives 
up a meeting too soon. The preacher who has 



254 



Graphic Scsne:s. 



delivered a good sermon, seen unmistakable signs 
that souls were waking up and wanted to buy the 
wine and milk of salvation that is so precious, and 
lo, he makes no altar call, gives no invitation, but so 
to speak, runs down the street of the last hymn, turns 
the corner of the benediction two blocks away, and 
gets out of sight of the church before it occurs to him 
what be has lost in the way of spiritual opportunity. 

As I saw this running street vendor, failing so 
signally in spite of his activity, I made some promises 
to God. One of them was that hereafter when I 
preached presenting pardon and eternal life, and saw 
the souls of men looking out of their faces and liter- 
ally waving a hand to me, that I was going down into 
the altar and let them have a chance at the mourners' 
bench of obtaining what God sent me to tell them 
about. 

A fourth cry was a most melancholy one. 

Two different street hucksters had this mournful 
note and utterance. One cried "C-h-a-r-c-o-a-1 !" 
with such a despairing kind of tone, that it made the 
hearer feel that he did not have a hope or friend left 
on earth. 

The other lamentation had reference to black-ber- 
ries. Usually this fruit was peddled by negro women 
or girls ; and they, with a high, chanting voice, pulled 
the word out as follows : "B-l-a-c-k B-e-r-ries !" the 
last syllable being suddenly elevated almost an octave, 



Btr^e^t Cri^s 01^ Ne:w Ori^^ans. 255 

and the whole word uttered in a tremulous, heart- 
breaking way that defies description. 

To buy charcoal after such a solemn funeral 
announcement seemed out of the question. It was 
like investing in the means of suicide. The suggestion 
seemed tO' be of death, and one would as soon have 
thought of purchasing a part of a funeral procession. 

As for the blackberry wail, to have bought 
them after such a cry would have been like a species 
of cannibalism. How could one eat that whose very 
announcement had wrung the heart and filled the eyes 
with tears. 

And yet Brother Mournful is oftentimes the most 
popular of preachers and evangelists. 

We have men in the pulpit who are great on burial 
sermons. They are sent for from great distances to 
preach the funeral of people who have been dead for 
years. They are great criers as they preach. Their 
water works run easy. Sentimental deliverance, and 
reference to natural affections easily turn on the 
water; so they abound in what is called grave-yard 
stories, and harrowing death-bed scenes. They cry 
themselves, and this makes others cry, and Bro. 
Mournful is said to be a mighty man of power, and is 
called a great preacher and wonderful revivalist. 

How often we have heard the ''charcoal" cry in 
the pulpit, and the "b-l-a-c-k-b-e-r~r-y wail" in si 
sermon. 



256 Graphic Sce:ni:s. 



The people wept as they received the berries and 
coal, but alas for it, blackberries do not last but a 
short season, and charcoal soon vanishes into smoke. 

All these lessons and many others were taken in, 
in my New Orleans pastorate; and yet Full Salvation 
still had not come to the great French-American city. 

It was coming, however. 

One of our bishops, before its arrival, had preached 
a sermon on the sea shore camp ground, and claimed 
to have had three introductions to the Trinity, one to 
the Father, a second to the Son, and a third to the 
Holy Ghost. 

I felt that he had indeed been well, if not remark- 
ably introduced, and quite envied him. 

Was it not strange that when full salvation came, 
and a number of us received the second blessing, that 
this bishop should have been so stirred up about it and 
provoked with us, and denied there was such a work. 
It always seemed to me that a man who had had three 
introductions to God, might have allowed us to have 
two blessings ; he being still one ahead of us. 

But he resented our claim' so bitterly that many 
thought that the "introductions" had not been good 
ones after all, that likely they were quite formal and 
not of a lasting nature. While still others were con- 
vinced after a bitter crusade he made on holiness and 
holiness people, that the bishop needed sorely a fourth 
introduction to God in order that he might finally die 
in peace and enter Heaven. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



The; Gr^at RmvAi, In Carond^li^t Stre;e:t Mi:tho- 
DisT Church. 

I do not remember to have seen or heard of a 
notable revival, one possessing the pov^er, liberty and 
sweep of a pentecostal character, that had visited New 
Orleans prior to the year 1889. Of course, there were 
the regular protracted meetings held in the different 
churches, with a few conversions and some accessions, 
but nothing that aroused public attention, stirred the 
crowd and aroused the fury of devils in Hell and men 
on earth until the time mentioned above. 

Several years before, the pastors of the different 
evangelical denominations had invited Moody and 
Sankey to hold a month's meeting, and they had done 
so. A large crowd of several thousand had packed 
Washington Artillery Hall. A big platform held 
about two hundred singers and one hundred or more 
notable city clergymen and laymen. Mr. Sankey, 
with his marvellously gifted voice, sang, "The Ninety 
and Nine," "Where Is My Wandering Boy To-Night?" 
and "My Ain Countree" until many eyes overflowed 
with tears of self pity, or through the vibration of 

257 



258 



Graphic Sc^ni^s. 



sentimental chords touching the natural afFectiong. 

Mr. Moody gave his business-like talk in a mechan- 
ical kind of way, and while his generalship was unmis- 
takable there was not one particle of unction in the 
addresses he delivered. I had heard much of his 
spiritual power in his wonderful England and Scot- 
land campaign, but evidently he had parted with it 
in the "seventies" somewhere and somehow. None of 
us criticised him, however, but worked faithfully. 

There was a large inquiry room back of the main 
auditorium, and there one or two hundred would 
gather by invitation after the sermon. There were 
circles of chairs ten in number for the seekers after 
instruction and salvation, and one in the center for 
some appointed leader, generally a preacher. In thi^ 
inquiry room I found a number of the best and mosti 
spiritual members I had in my church. One can 
imagine my amazement. I can see now that while 
regenerated, yet not having full salvation, they came 
into this inner room seeking blindly for the Upper 
Room about which they knew nothing as yet as an 
. experience. Of course, after conversation and prayer 
with the different leaders, they felt better and said 
so; whereupon they were promptly put down first in 
note books and next day in the newspapers as so 
many new converts. 

One Sunday night the crowd was so great that 
several overflow meetings were held. One at Caron- 



Th^ GRi^AT Re:vival. 259 



(delet Street M. E. Church South. The announcement 
was made by Mr. Moody from the platform that Dr. 
C. B. Galloway (afterwards bishop) would conduct 
the Carondelet Street church overflow meeting, and 
that Mr. Sankey would do the singing, whereupon 
hundreds arose and flocked to the place just men- 
tioned. Dr. Galloway asked me to go with him and 
lead in prayer. As we entered, Sankey was singing 
and the house was packed. He sang two more hymns 
and said that he would proceed from there and sing 
at still another church a few blocks away. Immedi- 
ately the scene enacted just before at Washington 
Artillery Hall was repeated and hundreds got up and 
left in a second chase after the singer. A mere hand- 
ful was left to listen to a splendid sermon made under 
peculiar difficulties by Dr. Galloway. It looked like 
the "Ninety and Nine" had gone after the "One." 

The reader, from these hasty sketches, can already 
guess the character of the meeting as a whole; and 
why after it was all over that our churches were not 
only neither larger and stronger, but decidedly let 
down some way. There seemed to have been some 
kind of dissipation which left us weaker somehow, with 
fewer in attendance at the regular services and no 
sweeping in of a genuine and abiding salvation that 
we had all craved so earnestly to see. 

In the spring of 1889 I determined to have a meet- 
ing of m.y own, where we could have the Holy Ghost 



'Graphic Sci^nejs. 



to come down and do things I had read about in the 
history of early Methodism and especially in the book 
of Acts. 

The man I selected to preach and lead the meet- 
ing was the Rev. W. W. Hooper of the Mississippi 
Conference. I had heard some strange reports about 
his way of preaching, etc., but I also knew that he 
always had a revival on his circuits, and so I sent for 
him. As he, on the morning of his arrival, sat in my 
Study and I looked on his face, I saw in an instant 
that he was living closer to God than I was. He had 
Full Salvation, and I did not knov/ the name of the 
blessing nor how to get it, and yet I could see that he 
knew God as I did not. 

A most remarkable fact came out in the course 
of the following week as stated to me by his own lips, 
viz., that I had been instrumental in bringing him into 
the Blessing of Sanctification. He said that years 
before I had left the Mississippi Conference he 
attended a meeting I was holding for some brother, 
when he saw by my face and preaching that I was 
living nearer to God than he was. At once he began 
waiting on the Lord for something better, and never 
rested until it came. (This life happening of his I 
have described in ''The History of a Prayer" in 
^'Remarkable Occurrences.") And now here in the 
providence of God was the man whom I had uncon- 



The: Q-RtAr R^vivai,. 



261 



sciously Helped in otHer years to most consciously and 
ably help me. 

As I was not that morning deep enough in the 
light to understand ; Brother Hopper, as I have said, 
waited several days before he told me. But fixing 
his eyes steadily upon me, he asked : "Are you going 
to let me preach as God will lead me?" 

My instant reply was, "Why, certainly. Do you 
think I would invite you as God's messenger to lead 
this meeting and preach to my people and then tell 
you what kind of message you must deliver? This 
would not only be discourteous and lacking in confi- 
dence in you, but disloyal to God." 

And so the meeting opened, and Brother Hopper 
trained his guns, and, as I have often said, "He made 
the feathers fly in the day and the hair fly at night." 
The reader will understand that very different animals 
wear hair and feathers. This is made clear in natural 
history. And the fact is confirmed when we study 
the matter, that in the moral realm as in nature the 
feather tribe appears generally in the day and 
the hair tribe comes forth by night. Hence the 
appropriateness and effectiveness of the discourses 
referred to in the beginning of this paragraph. 

One night he preached on "Heart Purity," and 
while a few came to the altar, we never remember to 
have felt such a fearful attack made by unseen hellish 
forces upon the work about the altar and upon the 



262 



Graphic Sce;n^s. 



meeting as a whole. Not only a thick gloom seemed 
to have come upon all, a heaviness, spiritual lethargy 
and lifelessness, but a kind of horror brooded on us. 
I could recall no such an experience at the Moody 
services, but it has come many times since in meetings 
I have held in different parts of the United States. 
It is thoroughly understood by me now, as the rush 
and settling down of infuriated devils on a sermon 
and service where a perfect and full salvation is being 
preached, offered and found. But I did not compre- 
hend the power of spiritual wickedness in high places 
then as I do now. Glancing at Brother Hopper I 
saw him sitting on the pulpit sofa with his hand cover- 
ing his eyes, while his lips were moving. 

After a full half hour, God suddenly lifted the 
blackness by, I question not, a rebuke of devildom, 
and a great victory came to the Christian people about 
the altar, though the crowd before us remained like 
stone. 

Walking together on the street, I told the evan- 
gelist that I had observed his lips in motion while the 
awful battle was on, and asked him if he was praying. 
He said, "No." I rejoined, "What were you doing 
then, whispering to yourself?'' His reply was: "I 
was exercising faith!" The lesson he gave me that 
night and in his explanation has lasted me already 
over twenty years, and that most profitably. 

Several days after this the "break," as I call it, 



Th^ Gr^at Rotvai,. 263 



came at the close of a morning meeting. There had 
been a blessed sermon, a lot of praying after the 
pleading order, and then at the request of myself a 
public acknowledgement from the two or three hun- 
dred members present as to whether they were con- 
sciously through strife, bitterness or wrongdoing 
in the way of a great revival coming to the church. 

Then ensued one of the most remarkable scenes 
I ever beheld, as first a woman, then a man, then 
another and another and another got up all over the 
building and confessed with sobs, bitter crying and 
some with heartbreaking wails to histories of bitter- 
ness, rancor, hate, gossip, scandal and strife, and that 
they were in the way of the Holy Ghost. When right 
in the midst of these confessions to man and God, the 
Holy Ghost fell! 

Over twenty years have passed since that remark- 
able morning, and yet the scene is as vivid and glori- 
ous as ever to heart and memory. It seemed like a 
hundred people were shouting at the same time. 
Some had fallen flat on the floor. Others were walk- 
ing up and down the aisles, with shining faces, clap- 
ping their hands. The altar was filled. A number 
of God's people were bowed over penitents, talking 
to and showing them the way to the cross, while one 
man in an ecstacy and with a stentorian voice cried 
out repeatedly in a way that thrilled every heart: 
"Jesus has come!" "J^sus has come!" 



264 Graphic Sc^n^s. 

The meeting lasted two weeks, Brother Hopper 
remaining the first eight days. Before he left there 
had been one hundred conversions and twenty-five 
sanctifications. Nor was this all of the fruit, for out 
of the work came new Sunday schools, missions, street 
meetings, together with four or five preachers and 
oyer a score of active Christian workers, 
r I received my Pentecost on the fifth or sixth day. 
Some pecuHar features of this history will be given 
in another chapter. The divine work of that morning 
already described ushered in a revival that lasted as 
long as I continued pastor. The Wednesday night 
prayer meeting filled the lecture room, the Holiness 
meeting on another night was on fire, the Sunday 
audiences crowded the auditorium upstairs, the collec- 
tions were at high water mark and higher, the altar 
always had seekers and penitents, and salvation from 
Heaven was granted at every service. 

One of the most memorable recollections of this 
revival is the beautiful glow and glory it seemed to 
put on the church and every one of the meetings. 
The people came with bright faces and almost a rush 
to the pews. Something had come to pass, and some- 
thing was taking place all the time. The Lord was 
there, had appeared to Simon and a great many others 
besides; the heart was warm, the soul was being fed 
and was glad ; and so every meeting was a benediction 



Th^ Gr^at R^vivaIv. ^65 



to God's people as well as a victory over the world and 
the devil. 

Some one may ask, did all your congregation get 
the blessing? was there no division? And the reply 
is there was a dividing of the people then and always 
will be as long as there are some in the church who are 
not willing to consecrate their all and dO' not desire 
holiness. We read in the Gospel that Christ invited 
five hundred of His disciples and followers to attend 
the first Holiness meeting held in Jerusalem. But 
we also learn that three hundred and eighty did not 
go for reasons that can easily be imagined. One 
hundred and twenty went, sought and found the bless- 
ing. So there was a division among the five hundred. 

And there were those in Carondelet Street church 
who held aloof. Some would not attend to get 
instructions. Others looked mystified. Still others 
fought the doctrine and experience furiously. One 
of the most rabid of this class was quite a prominent 
man in the congregation. He fairly raged against 
me, the meeting, its results, holiness, and my preach- 
ing as he talked on the streets, hobnobbed in the 
aisles, penned squibs to the newspapers, and wrote 
to bishops. He said: "God did not have to do two 
works; that Holiness was a false doctrine; that it was 
dividing the congregation and ruining the church.'* 

Think of a church ruined by Holiness ! 

Six months later at the annual conference held 



2'66 Graphic Sce:nj:s/ 

in Baton Rouge, just before the hour of reading the 
appointments, Bishop Duncan sent me word that he 
wished to see me in a private office in the church. I 
found him there. He said, fixing his eyes upon me : 

"Did you know that I have received a letter from 
an influential member of your congregation urging 
me not to send you back 

With an intoxicating joy in my soul which God 
had given me a half year before, and with a happy 
smile on my face, I replied : 

"Why, bishop, I do not ask you to return me to 
Carondelet; but wherever you think and feel under 
God that I ought to go." 

He turned a strange, surprised look upon me and 
said : "Well, I am going to send you back, anyhow.'* 

I then said: "Bishop, will you allow me to tell 
you the name of the man who wrote you that letter?" 

The bishop made no reply, and taking silence for 
consent, I repeated the name of the prominent member 
who had raged so with tongue and pen against me 
and the meeting. 

The bishop cleared his throat, stammered a mo- 
ment, and before he could check himself admitted that 
I was right. Then hastily rising from the desk where 
he sat, he said: "As I have already told you, I am 
going to send you back." 

Concerning the melancholy and dreadful history 
of the man who wrote the letter thousands know 



The: Gri^at Ri^vivai.. 267 



to-day. He was living up to the eyebrows in the 
blackest of iniquity when he was fighting and trying 
to undo the beautiful work of grace God had sent to 
the people through Brother Hopper's meeting. In 
his sudden death years afterward everything came to 
light about his life, so astounding, horrible and crimi- 
nal that everyone knew why he raged so against the 
evangelist and preacher, and could not bear to hear 
such messages from the pulpit as "Be ye holy, for I 
am holy or listen to the death-knell-like sound of the 
words, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." 



CHAPTER XXX. 



How I Obtaini:d The: Bi^kssing. 

As I recall this part of my life now, it was while 
Bro. Hopper was giving his third Bible reading, that 
like a flash of light breaking on me, I saw the second 
work of grace, holiness received through consecration 
and faith, an instantaneous experience, clearly taught 
in the Word of God. 

The instant I beheld the privilege and grace, I 
wanted it. There was no thought or desire with me 
to avoid the payment of the price or shirk and escape 
the difficulties that were in the way ; but the dominant 
purpose and longing was how to get the blessing. 
The idea of arguing against a doctrine that so exalted 
Christ and honored the Blood never entered my mind. 
I wanted the blessing. 

The evangelist gave general directions as to the 
obtainment of the experience that were true and Scrip- 
tural, but the Spirit, as He always does, led specifically. 

As well as I can recall some of the steps taken 
which led me into Canaan, one involved my willing- 
ness to become an alien and outcast from the ranks 
of my brethren on account of the truth of holiness. 

268 



How I Obtained ths^ Blessing. 269 

No one but a preacher who has lived for years 
in the midst of a congenial Conference or Church 
Brotherhood could appreciate the suffering and sacri- 
fice attending such an experience. Yet this was 
clearly brought to my mind and remained pressing 
heavily Hke a conviction upon it, until I said, "Yes." 

Next came another vivid-like impression almost 
like a voice — 'Would I be willing to give up reputa- 
tion for all time?" 

It is true that very few individuals have really 
great reputations, and none have as much as they 
think they have, but the trouble with the unsanctified 
heart is that it believes it possesses a lot of things that 
it does not, and among them a great, enviable life 
elevation and distinction. 

But be that as it may, whether a man is in high 
standing with his fellow beings or just imagi?nes that 
he is; to secure the blessing of holiness one has to 
place his reputation, real or fancied, on the altar, and 
be like His Lord who had none. 

So again I said, ''Yes." 

Following this was the inward query — "Would 
I be willing to be misunderstood, all my Hfe, and 
tread a path of human loneliness to the very portals 
of the tomb?" 

Not a reader but is conscious of the domestic, 
social and affectional pull on our natures, and that 
according to law. There are divinely created move- 



270 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



ments of the heart and spirit that are legitimate and 
proper, and in them there is much of human happi- 
ness experienced. Now to be wilHng to be misunder- 
stood in the household, ostracized from many a social 
and ecclesiastical circle, to be dropped as though one 
was contaminated, and avoided as if a leper by many 
or all, makes a sacrifice of a nature beyond words to 
adequately describe. 

And yet with body prostrate on the floor and face 
wet with tears I answered the Lord once more — *'Yes." 

As I took other steps in the hne of consecration, 
it soon became evident that I was rendering a full 
obedience to God as I recognized His will in His Word 
or heard His voice sounding in my soul calling to 
particular acts of sacrifice and service. 

The words of Christ came back now with a pro- 
founder meaning y^hen He said to His disciples, If 
you will love Me and keep My commandments I will 
come and take up My abode in 3^ou. At the same 
time the condition of spiritual knowledge was made 
evident in the utterance, "If any man will do His zcill 
he shall know of the doctrine." 

So I kept saying Yes, Yes, Yes, to all of the divine 
will and Word, to every call He made upon me, and 
I found a sweet growing consciousness that I was 
getting somewhere ; that I was on the right road ; and 
was in a way where the light was growing steadily 
brighter, evidently to some perfect day. I was three 



How I Obtained the Bi^essing. 



271 



days seeking the blessing, and in all that period kept 
saying, "Yes" to God. Two of these acts of obedi- 
ence I wish to call attention to. 

Let the reader bear in mind that, during this 
period of which I am now writing, the War against 
the Lottery Company was still going on, and the 
revival meeting led by Bro. Hopper in my church was 
in progress. 

In my membership there was a gentleman who 
was wealthy. The richest member of the congrega- 
tion, he was also regarded as among the first finan- 
cially in the city. He was a commission and cotton 
merchant, and a vacancy taking place in a bank he 
was promptly elected president by the directors. 

In this bank the Louisiana State Lottery Co. had 
large deposits. One day I received a letter enclosing 
a lottery ticket, and the following lines with it written 
on note paper: "Did you know that your leading 

member, Mr. W , has his name on the back of 

every one of the lottery tickets and that he states over 
his signature that if said ticket should draw a prize 
that he will as president of the bank see that it is 
cashed?" 

I placed the letter with the ticket in my pocket 
and wondered what should and could be done. The 
man was so wealthy and influential; he was in addi- 
tion so reserved and chiUing in his manner that no 



272 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



one was intimate or familiar with him, and no one 
would hardly dare to reprove him. 

One day I was in the heart of the French part of 
the city, the day before I received the blessing, when 
suddenly the still small voice I knew so well, most 
powerfully and sweetly directed me to return at once, 

and go to the bank of Mr. W , talk to him about 

his soul and urge him to give up his connection with 
the Lottery. 

The prominence of the man, together with his 
cold manner, made this new command of Heaven a 
very trying test to my obedience. But the burning 
abiding sweetness of the impression on my soul could 
not be mistaken, so with a quick catch in my breath! 
and a sinking feeling of dread in my heart I said, 
"I will go." 

Nevertheless, Gideon-like, I asked for a sign; 
saying to the Savior, "I will obey you ; but grant as 
a confirmation of this impression sent me, that when 

I reach the Bank there will be no one in Mr. W 

office but himself, and that you will allow no person 
to interrupt us while I am employed with him on 
your mission." 

When I reached the door of the private office I 

saw that Mr. W was alone; in addition not a 

soul, whether clerk or citizen, came in while we were 
speaking together. The time consumed was nearly 
an hour. The marvel of it all was that I never knew: 



How I Obtained Bi^^ssing. 273 

the like to happen before or since. The rule was 
always a perfect procession of people in and out of 
that busy apartment of the president of the bank. 

It is needless to tell how God helped me to talk 
to this man in tenderness and yet firmness. As he 
and his wife had been growing cold, backslidden and 
worldly for years, I recalled to him what he had once 
been to the Sunday School and church. What an 
influence he could wield in the city and in his own con- 
gregation if he would only come out positively and 
devotedly as he once did to every meeting and interest 
of the church. 

He replied that He could not do so, that he had 
served his time, and others ought to be brought for- 
ward. 

I then saost earnestly begged him to dissolve his 
connection with the Louisiana State Lottery Company. 
He responded that he did not believe in nor approve 
of it. 

In answer I drew from my pocket the lottery ticket 
that had been sent me, and showed him his name on 
the back with the statement that if this ticket drew 
a prize, he the undersigned president of a certain 
Ibank, would see that it was cashed. 

He became very white, and answered that this 
was simply an official notice and not an endorsement 
of the Lottery. I replied, "But here is your state- 
ment Bro. W , saying the ticket will be cashed if 



274 



Graphic Scejn^s. 



it is the right number. And your good name signed 
here encourages people to invest in the gambling con- 
cern, and so becomes an actual recommendation and 
endorsement of this great swindling business, and ini- 
quitous corporation." 

He rejoined with increasing whiteness and resent- 
ment, "That as the president of the bank he was com- 
pelled to give that notice as the I^ottery Company 
made deposits in his bank." 

My reply was : 

"Then, Bro. W , give up the presidency of the 

bank rather than do this great wrong to yourself and 
your fellow beings." 

He answered stiffly and freezingly that he could 
not think of doing such a thing. I then said to him, 
as I saw he wished me to leave, 

"Bro. W , you are the largest contributor we 

have in the church." (He gave about four hundred 
dollars to the support of the pastor.) "But I am 
compelled to tell you in all kindness that we cannot 
receive any more of your money in our church." 

I then spoke a kindly good-bye to the deeply 
ofifended man and went from the interview and build' 
ing with a flood of divine favor and approval in my 
soul. 

The man never forgave me. A few weeks after- 
ward he left our church and joined Dr. Palmer's, the 
'First Presbyterian. He said in explanation of his 



How I Obtained rm Bi^itssiNG. 



275 



departure that he could not stand my Holiness preach- 
ing. But the record in the Book of Judgment will 
not read that way in the Last Day. Instead of Holi- 
ness preaching will be found the words, "The Lottery 
- — Bank — Presidential Salary — Ten Thousand Dollars 
a Year," etc., etc. 

A New Orleans preacher transferred to cities 
farther North in Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland, 
told it wherever he went that "Dr. Carradine had 
driven from the ranks of Methodism and from our 
church one of the best men, loveliest characters and 
truest members that the Southern Methodist Church 
ever had." This speech was repeated many times, 
and firmly believed by many thousands, so that to-day 
it would be impossible to convince a multitude in New 
Orleans and elsewhere to the contrary. The record 
in the Book of Judgment which will be read aloud in 
the upper air one of these days can alone make this 
with many other unknown matters and histories clear 
to the eyes and convictions of man. I am willing to 
wait until that day. 

As I left the bank, just as clearly the Spirit of 
God led me to go to another leading member of my 
church. He was a merchant in the fancy grocery bus- 
iness and had three stores in the city. In addition to 
groceries he sold wines and liquors of all kinds. He 
had been a member of Carondelet Street Church for 



'Graphic Sce^nss. 



years. I found him there as one of the leading 
stewards. 

I had my interview with him in his wine or liquor 
room. Standing among the barrels and cases I talked 
to him kindly, lovingly, entreatingly and faithfully. I 
told him he had many excellent traits of character; 
that he was generous, hospitable and charitable; that 
I loved him personally; but he was in a wrong busi- 
ness. That God could not bless him in it ; that instead 
His curse was on it. That the Word of God said, 
'IVoe to the man who putteth the bottle to his neigh- 
bor's lips." 

I have not space here to describe the whole scene 

and occurrence. Can only say that Bro. M flew 

all to pieces ; the first time I ever saw him angry. He 
said that people would have wines, that he did not 
make them buy, etc., etc., all through the old stock 
arguments of defense of the wrong business. 

Seeing that I had failed with him, and that there 
wa:9 no hope of the meeting reaching him as he did 
not attend it, I bade him a sorrowful good-day, telling 

him as I had told Bro. W , that we could not accept 

his $200 for pastoral support hereafter. 

As I walked away from this second and most pain- 
ful obedience to God that morning, I had a most 
remarkable witness given to my soul that God was' 
pleased with my consecration and that no more tests 
would be given in that line until the blessing came. 



How I OBTAINi:D the: BIvI^SSING. 277 

The other step of Faith remained, and this I took 
and kept taking. Scores of times I said, "The Blood 
of Jesus Christ cleanses me now. The altar sanctifies 
me now. Jesus sanctifies me now." And all blessing 
to His name, I felt my faith growing. I was 
approaching the perfected faith talked about by Paul. 

Then I prayed! And oh, how I prayed. Hours 
at a time I would be on my knees or on my face alone 
in my study or private room. 

One morning I arose through the touch of God a 
great while before day and prayed until eight o'clock. 
My soul was full of peace, but that which I was after 
had not come. At 8 : 30 I could eat nothing at break- 
fast, and went to my Study up stairs. 

It was nine o'clock, the third hour of the day, and 
I was sitting in my arm-chair yearning, and expecting. 
I was singing softly the chorus of "Down at the Cross," 
when I got a heavenly telegram that the Blessing 
was coming. I felt unworthy to receive such grace 
sitting, and tried to rise and have it come on me as 
I stood, but He that makes comets fly four hundred 
miles a second is quicker than all motion, and before 
I could leave my seat, the fire fell ! the blessing came ! 
the Baptism with the Holy Ghost flooded, filled and 
rolled over my soul in billows of flame and glory! 

The reader is referred to my book on Sanctifica- 
tion for further particulars of what took place in my 

/ 



278 



Graphic Scj:ns:s. 



room and in the church on that never-to-be-forgotten 
morning. 

That wonderful day is past; but the reflection still 
glows and burns in the sky. The storm of glory swept 
by; but it left Jesus walking on a stilled sea. The 
work abides. The witness remains. My soul is at 
rest. 

I was born in the morning. I was born again in 
the morning. Was baptized with the Holy Ghost in 
the morning. And please God, I expect with a great 
multitude of God's people to arise from the dead in 
the morning of the Resurrection when Jesus appears 
in the sky, and at His voice they that sleep in their 
graves shall come forth unto everlasting life and glory. 



CHAPTER XXXL 



The; Re:vivai. at Ce:nte:nary Church In St. Louis. 

I was travelling in the Holy Land when I was 
appointed by my Conference to St. Louis and placed 
in charge of a congregation whose house of worship 
was like a cathedral as to size and architectural 
appearance. 

Rumors of what had happened in a spiritual way 
to their new preacher had reached Centenary Church, 
and while a few might have been glad, the ecclesiastical 
body itself was anxious and disturbed. 

Some minutes before the first morning service one 
of the stewards entered the pastor's study and with 
his two hands rolled together like a ball, stood a few 
moments with a sickly kind of smile, looking at the 
preacher, and then said : 

"What kind of sermon are you going to give us 
this morning, something to build us up, and make us 
all feel good ?" 

With a glance I sized up the man, but replied 
quietly and gravely, "I am going to give you the Gos- 
pel." 

"Oh," said the steward, with a surprised, anxious 
279 



28o 



Graphic Sckn^s. 



look on his face ; and then revolving his hands rapidly 
together until they looked like a couple of propellers, 
he turned and steered his way out of the room. It 
was so much like a tug or little stern-wheel steamboat 
movement that I could not keep back the smiles. The 
little *'oh'* being the whistle for departure, the rapidly 
revolving hands being startlingly like a propeller, get- 
ting up headway, then the turn of the human vessel, 
which next chugged and puffed away out of the door. 

I But in a few minutes the tug returned, and 
anchored in the same place. This time the communi- 

■ cation was to this effect : 

"I came back to let you know that there are two 
doors opening from the hall into the auditorium ; one, 
on the right, is the south entrance to the pulpit; the 
other, on the left, comes in on the north side. Dr. 

. M , who preceded you in the pastorate, always 

came in at the south door. Our leading people sit on 
that side of the church and will look for you to enter 
that way." 

I took stock again of the individual before me, and 
the second inventory showed me that I had a small 
affair indeed to deal with. But with the same quiet 
manner I replied: 

"I will come into the auditorium by the northern 
entrance. The people on that side of the church have 
been neglected long enough. I will show them that 
attention and courtesy.'* 



R^viVAi, IN St. IvOUis. 



281 



"Oh !" gasped Bro. Propeller. Then the wheels 
revolved, headway was gotten up, the little vessel was 
pointed toward the offing, and puffed and panted itself 
out of sight. 

But be it recorded that the pastor, through this 
little morning scene, made a confirmed enemy out of 
the steward. 

Over fifteen hundred people heard in dead silence 
the new preacher's first sermon. The subject was 
''Personal Accountability to God." It gave great 
offence. The leading members made little or no effort 
to conceal their disappointment and chagrin. 

Why such a topic should have so displeased them 
remains for the spiritual character student to answer 
correctly. One prominent member said to another 
as they walked away from the imposing looking sanc- 
tuary : 

"He will never preach any other way; we are in 
for it now." 

That night I presented salvation in such a manner 
that a few were somewhat mollified, but not enough 
so, to come up and shake the pastor's hand, as had 
been their custom with all preceding ministers. The 
fear that "they were in for it" would not down, no 
matter how and what the new man preached. They 
had heard he had received the Blessing of Sanctifica- 
tion ; and had he not preached on Personal Accounta- 
bility to God in the first pulpit message? What had 



282 



Graphic Sce:ni:s. 



they as a hope to ding to in view of these melancholy 
facts ? 

On Wednesday evening, the prayer-meeting night, 
I would give thirty to forty minute talks on the Chris- 
tian life and experience. At the first service my sub- 
ject was Christ's Style of Feasts, and spoke of what 
the Savior had said as to a certain kind of gue&ts. 
How we had drifted from the Lord's conceptions and 
directions; so that if a man gave a feast to-day and 
invited the classes Christ mentioned, people would 
regard him as mentally unsound; while that person 
was considered well-balanced and all right who issued 
his summons to the rich, great, prominent and dis- 
tinguished, who could return invitation with invitation, 
and requite favor for benefit. 

This talk aroused special indignation; for there 
were present just such leading members whose hospi- 
tality only went out to bishops, star preachers, dis- 
tinguished men, and people of their own plane and 
class. 

The second Wednesday evening the topic was, 
''The Right Kind of Giving." The Savior's words 
were carefully quoted and dwelt upon, especially His 
direction that we give expecting nothing in return. 

The fury aroused by this talk went beyond any- 
thing yet that had occurred. It seemed that I had 
stirred up a hornet's nest unconsciously. I had all 



Re^vivaIv in St. Louis. 



283 



unwittingly uncovered something that the Board of 
Stewards had done. 

It developed that they had a poor man in the mem- 
bership to whom the church granted a monthly allow- 
ance. Recognizing that he was frail and could not 
last a great while, the Board had his life insured, and 
on his death got back even more than they had ever 
given him. 

Hence the indignation over the talk. It looked 
as if some one was informing the new preacher, and 
telling on the congregation. And yet such was not 
the case. I had no conception when I gave the talk 
that such a thing had taken place. 

And so it went on, and no matter what subject 
was handled; what phase of sin was shown up; the 
dislike and anger of the leading members steadily 
increased. It verily seemed to me that I could not 
take any text, or preach any kind of sermon, but there 
would be uncoverings, and consequent explosions. 

In addition to all this, realizing the great dread 
of the large city congregation to holiness, I conceived 
the plan wisely, as I thought, of confining the doctrine 
and experience to the first floor of the great second 
story building ! That is, I planned that the Blessing 
should first burn and glow in the four class meeting 
rooms and large lecture hall down stairs, and thus 
gradually affect, warm and bless the great audience 
wp stairs in the auditoriuna. 



284 Graphic Sc^nus. ' 

This brilliant conception and effort failed owing 
to the character of the Blessing of Sanctification, and 
the nature of people obtaining it. The experience is 
a holy fire and has a way of spreading like any other 
fire. Then it has a style of setting people in a flame 
who get it, and they naturally ignite still others. 

Still another fact that must be conceded by all 
observers of conflagrations, that when fire breaks out 
in a lower story, it invariably reaches up and travels 
for the floor or floors above. I mention this pheno- 
menon because I was much blamed for not keeping 
the holy flame and fire down stairs. It would not 
stay down stairs ! Anyhow it acted that way in a sky- 
scraper cathedral. 

One night I took about forty men into one of the 
class rooms, and together we prayed through the 
entire night, begging God not only for personal bless- 
ings, but pleading for a great revival in the church. 

In this all-night prayer meeting, five men were 
sanctified, and two were reclaimed. Sparks from this 
nocturnal blaze fell on many hearts and homes the 
following week. The glow was reflected, and even 
a measure of heat felt in the great auditorium up stairs 
the following Sabbath morning. 

But great also was the indignation among the 
leading church members, and all their satellites and 
general following, that such a disgraceful noise and 
racket should be kept up all night in their beautiful 



Rotvai, in St. I^ouis. '285 

and stately temple. And that these unseemly pro- 
ceedings should be heard by people on the street, and 
in neighboring houses. Why, it was said that a police- 
man banged at a side door of the church on account of 
the loud praying, weeping and rejoicing, and demanded 
to know what on earth was the matter. 

In view of all this they felt the church building 
had been dishonored and the congregation put to an 
open shame. To think of an Irish policeman being 
compelled to hammer with his club on the oak grained 
panels of their chapel portal and ask what was the 
disturbance, and that, in a building that had been so 
respectable and quiet ever since the day of its dedica- 
tion. 

After this remarkable night, the Spirit of God 
fell in converting, reclaiming and sanctifying power 
so often in the lower rooms, and the interest became 
so deep, and the congregation so large, that I felt 
profoundly moved to announce a protracted meeting; 
and the auditorium up stairs, because of its larger size, 
was thrown open to the crowd that could not be 
accommodated in the lecture room. 

Again the deepest offence was taken by the leading 
members of the church. First by the Board of Ste- 
wards, who said that the pastor had not consulted 
them, nor asked their consient to hold the special ser- 
vices. 

I informed these brethren at the regular Monday 



286 



Graphic ScElNes. 



night stewar'ds' meeting, and did so gently and firmly, 
that it was not the pastor's duty to ask their consent; 
that neither the Bible nor the Methodist Discipline 
required such a thing ; nor did my call and commission 
from God to preach include as a feature the necessity 
of obtaining the consent of any body of men to preach 
salvation to lost men ; that the Board of Trustees were 
to take charge of the church building in the material 
sense of keeping it in good repair; that the Board of 
Stewards looked after the financial needs of the 
preacher and the work; but that the pulpit and the 
spiritual interests of the church were committed to 
the pastor by the Bishop and the Annual Conference 
to which the pastor belonged. 

This was said in such love, gentleness, and kind- 
ness that every one of the Board of thirty stewards 
yielded without another word. 

Then came the anger of the Ladies' Aid Society. 
Its principal women were disgusted and indignant. 
To think that their beautiful auditorium should be 
opened, and their lovely carpet, which they had just 
finished paying for by a series of church suppers and 
entertainments, should be walked over by the public 
herd, a crowd of anybodies and everybodies and 
nobodies, and that, too, every night for a month or 
six weeks ! Oh, it was too bad for anything ! They 
felt they could actually sit down and cry over this 



RejvivaIv in St. Louis. 



287 



piece of vandalism, such was their vexation and indig- 
nation. 

I told them with a sick and sorrowful feeling of 
the heart, that they ought to be glad to have an hun- 
dred carpets walked over and trodden into shreds as 
long as precious immortal souls were being saved. 

Their rejoinder was that I, the pastor, did not 
know what a time they had had, with church suppers 
and entertainments, in raising money for the carpet. 

In reply to this, I told them that if the covering 
for the floor had been purchased that way, the sooner 
it went, the better. That such a method of raising 
money for the church was unscriptural and indeed 
anti-scriptural. That it spiritually deadened the con- 
gregation, and dried up the very Fountain of Liber- 
ality or spirit of giving which they wanted to see open 
and flowing in their midst. 

This was so contrary to their views, so upsetting 
to their practices, and so condemnatory of what they 
had construed as religious activity and good works, 
that for the rest of the interview they scarcely treated 
me with civility. 

Several hours afterwards I heard a great hammer- 
ing going on in the auditorium, and walking in from 
my Study beheld a number of workmen engaged in 
tacking some coarse white canvas down over the much 
lamented carpet, while a group of members of the 
Ladies' Aid Society stood around, giving directions, 



288 



Graphic Scenes. 



and looking very much like people who are arranging 
the parlors, hall, and furniture of a dwelling for a 
funeral. 

In spite of this and everything else which took 
place at this time, the revival came ! The great altar 
would be filled day and night, and swept clean at 
almost every service. With the exception of five days, 
I preached twice a day for six weeks, and met as well 
as I could the other demands of the pastorate upon 
me. 

There were four or five . hundred conversions, 
reclamations and sanctifications, bright, clear, and 
many of them very remarkable and powerful. Fully 
twenty preachers were sanctified who were in the 
pastorate; while out of the mixed audience attending, 
there were a number saved who are to-day in the 
ministry, or some kind of active Christian work. 

The scenes of power and glory which took place 
during that month and a half would fill a volume. 
God's seal of endorsement and approval was on every 
service. 

It mattered not how the world ridiculed and 
scoffed ; nor how the leading members of the church 
held off, turned rigid forms and frozen faces upon 
their pastor and the work going on, and on one occa- 
sion called me down while I was preaching — still, all 
the more God smiled upon and blessed every service, 
the Holy Ghost continued to fall upon pulpit and altar, 



IR^viVAi, IN St. Louis. 289 



and the revival swept on. The holy fire was now 
I burning in every room of this beautiful, stately temple 
of worship. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



Cai,Ivi:d B^^ore: The^ Sanhi:drim. 

At the close of the fourth week of the revival, and 
while salvation was rolling like a flood at every ser- 
vice; one day I received notice that my Board of 
Stewards desired to see me in the business room or 
office of the church, where these officials met each 
Monday night, and where the quarterly conferences 
of the church were also held. 

I was very busy with two sermons a da}^, requests 
coming from every quarter for visits at the homes o£ 
the people, and for interviews in my Study. Then 
there were calls from the sick and the dying, and 
appointments for funeral services in homes, and 
burials at the cemetery. But I replied to the mes- 
senger that I would be on hand at the hour appointed 
in the afternoon. 

As I approached the imposing looking edifice sev- 
eral hours later, the Savior so filled me with His Spirit 
that my heart felt like a ball of fire in my breast, and 
my soul seemed perfectly melted with love. I could 
scarcely keep from shouting aloud on the street. 

Entering a side door, passing down a hall, I enter- 
290 



Cai.IvI:d B^i^or^ thej Sanhe:drim. 291 



ed the council chamber, where the Sanhedrim was 
assembled. 

About fifteen stewards were ranged around the 
wall, sitting stiffly and angularly in chairs, and looking 
for all the world like the stone figures we have seen 
in pictures of ancient Egypt. For cold, rigid, unbend- 
ing lines the Egyptian images had but little advantage 
over the group of church officers who had summoned 
their pastor to appear before them, and sat awaiting 
him. 

As I walked into the Stone Age or Period, with a 
glance I saw there was trouble of some kind ahead 
for me, as was easily indicated by the set, gloomy 
faces, and the lack of greeting which courtesy alone, 
aside from Christianity, demanded that they should 
extend to a man of God, and their own pastor as well. 

I said to the silent circle, or rather square of 
statue-like figures, "Brethren, I do not know why you 
have sent for me; but whatever may be the business 
or object of the meeting, let us first kneel down and 
ask God's blessing upon us, and upon all we say and 
do." 

All knelt, and I prayed. The Spirit filled me, and 
at the same time powerfully moved upon nearly all 
the rest of the company. Heaven drew near, and the 
Holy Ghost undoubtedly endeavored, with His graci- 
ous influence, to end, then and there, a wrong course 
begun by these brethren which later would take on 



292 



Graphic Sckn^s. 



darker features, a fiercer and more Satanic spirit, 
resulting in great harm to the church, much suffering 
to innocent parties, dreadful spiritual disaster to some 
of their own number, and the loss of hundreds of 
members to Methodism. 

But there was an immediate consequence, which 
took place the instant all arose from their knees, 
totally unexpected by the called meeting, and showing 
most unmistakably the presence and work of the Holy 
Spirit, as has been mentioned. 

Full of perfect peace and gladness, I was about 
to ask the stewards to state why they had summoned 
me into their presence, when one of the most promi- 
nent men in the room approached another leading offi- 
cial, and asked him in a broken voice and with tears, 
that he accept his advance, and that they would be 
at peace and in brotherly love with one another. This 
overture and prompt acceptance by the other side, 
quite broke up most of the brethren present who wit- 
nessed the reconciliation, and tears, smiles and hand- 
shakes abounded. Three or four were not of the 
melted and moved group. 

To my amazement I was informed by a steward 
standing near me, that these two reconciled members 
of the church had been at bitter enmity, and had not 
spoken for seven or eight years ! 

And now lo ! and behold ! here in a meeting called 
to censure the pastor, and give him orders that he 



CaIvIv^d B^i^or^ rut Sanhedrim. 293 



must behave to suit the Board of Stewards, here the 
Lord had broken in, upset the plans of men and devils, 
and had a long standing quarrel which had brought 
trouble to scores of people and reproach upon the 
church and cause of Christ, fixed up, wiped out and 
healed perfectly and completely ! 

It was simply impossible, on account of the lovely 
spirit now prevailing in the room, for the stewards 
to carry out the original program and say and do as 
they had intended. 

As I found out afterwards I was to have received 
a regular setting down and going over, and also the 
most unmistakable orders about myself, my preaching, 
the present meeting, etc., etc. 

And yet the Savior had in the most unexpected way 
disconcerted their plans, locked their jaws and brought 
two of their number to make friends, and caused 
eleven out of the fifteen to shed tears, shake hands 
cordially with one another and say, "Bless God!" 

It was laughable to hear the eleven trying to give 
me some kind of explanation for having summoned 
me in such an autocratic and even Inquisitional way 
to appear before them. 

One said with a decidedly foolish expression on 
his face: 

**You set us aside and don't use us in the meeting. 
We are made to feel that we are nowhere." 

''Why, brethren," I replied, "you won't let me use 



294 



Graphic Sce^ni^s. 



you. I have done my best to bring you forward 
around the altar, and you will not come.'* 

"Well," almost whimpered another, "you do not 
call on us to pray. Strangers are coming forward 
and praying in public, and working about the altar, 
and we feel that \ve are ignored and not wanted." 

"My brethren," I returned, "nothing would please 
me more than to have you pray in the services, and 
identify yourselves with the work, but I cannot get 
you to pray. Repeatedly I call out, 'Who will now 
pray for these penitents and seekers,' and not one of 
you will respond. Seeing your aloofness and mark- 
ing your silence, others, filled with a great desire to 
help souls, and to push the work of Christ, come 
forward, take up the work and help press the battle. 
This is not done to reflect upon you or to displease 
you, but some one must and will do these things for 
Christ and souls if you .will not." 

And so the meeting ended in a much better spirit 
than it began. 

But there were four of these fifteen men who were 
not among the softened and kindly ones. So, after 
the pastor got into his buggy and rushed away to meet 
some distant call, the four remained and conversed 
an hour with the eleven. 

That night, as the pastor walked into the pulpit, 
and his eyes fell upon his ofiicial members, he saw 
with a mere glance that something had happened. 



Cai^IvE^d B^i^or^ thi^ Sanhe^drim. 295 



The ecclesiastical world, as represented by his stew- 
ards, trustees and leading members, had for some 
reason rolled back into the Stone Period or Age, and 
there was a feeling that with but little search and 
investigation, old arrow heads of flint, and rock 
hatchets could be discovered in the heart and life 
strata all around. 

One afternoon of the next week, the stewards held 
another meeting. This time they did not notify or 
summon the pastor. 

The devil, who plainly saw his mistake in the first 
assembly, did not propose to repeat such a blunder. 
Doubtless he thought and planned^ — ''No preacher 
filled with the Holy Ghost shall come to this next 
gathering of the officials, or just as likely there would 
be another reconciliation, and a general melting time." 

So the meeting, now a conclave, was held two 
miles from the church on what we will call Millionaire 
avenue. Only seven of the original fifteen attended. 
The other eight stayed away, giving different excuses, 
but two saying plainly — "No, we will have nothing 
more to do with this matter against our pastor." 

But the seven met, among them the original 
unmoved four, one being Bro. Propeller, and another 
a Mason in high standing. 

That night they doomed their pastor. He was 
sentenced to what is known as Ministerial Death. 
The mode of execution to be Ecclesiastical Decapita- 



296 



Graphic Sce:nj;s. 



tion. The Executioner to be a bishop. The time of 
demise to be on the assembling of the next Annual 
Conference in the coming September. 

Immediately Bro. Propeller was told to write a 
letter to the Bishop acquainting him with these pro- 
ceedings and what they desired and expected him to 
do. The document was duly penned in their presence, 
and mailed that night. 

The Bill of Charges in the letter against the pastor 
was that he was dividing the congregation and ruining 
the church. 

The counter facts in the case were that the build- 
ing was crowded at every service; the finances ahead 
of anything ever known before, and that, too, in the 
face of complete discontinuance of wrong methods 
of raising money; while a revival was in progress 
wherein hundreds of souls were being converted and 
sanctified ; and the church roll showed at the end of 
the year that there had been nearly three hundred 
accessions. 

The victory in all these results and figures becomes 
all the more remarkable in recalling the fact, that 
through the entire year, the great influence of the 
Official Board and leading members of the church 
was against the pastor and his work. 

Between the lines of the Bill of Charges were 
other sentences which will be brought out in the Day 
of Judgment, and which really describe the trouble 



Cali^ed BE:foRj: thj: Sanhedrim. 297 



with the v/riters of the letter and the real cause of 
of¥ence. 

The actual reason for their indignation, and conse- 
quent determination to get rid of their preacher was, 
that his preaching had dug them up; and that in a 
genuine Holy Ghost revival they could do nothing; 
and keenly felt themselves, and were plainly beheld 
by others on the outside to be simply nowhere. 

After the Bill of Charges had been written and 
committed to Bro. Propeller to mail down town, then 
the seven, like a certain famous ten individuals in the 
Book of Genesis, sat down by the side of the pit, to 
eat bread. 

None of the proceedings of this caucus were 
known by the pastor for a full month. 

One night, while walking home from the church to 
my home in company with one of the city preachers, 
my companion stopped under a lamp-post and told me 
what the stewards had done on the night already 
described. He added the words : 

"You are doomed. There is no hope for you. 
The stewards have demanded that you be sent away; 
and the Bishop has consented." 

The informant being a man who lived in continual 
dread of the powers that be in the church, expected 
words of lamentation and protestation on my part. 
Perhaps he looked to hear me groan, and fall down at 



298 



Graphic Sc^nijs. ^ 



the foot of the iron post there under the gaslight. If 
so, he was disappointed. 

I replied with a happy laugh, "That is all right. 
When I sought the blessing of sanctification I put 
churches, bishops, stewards, good appointments, poor 
appointments and everything else on the altar. I died 
to all this when I got the Blessing, and do not have 
to die over again." 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



Thi: Ci,ash With Fr^^ Masonry. 

While I was at Centenary Church one Sabbath 
morning my subject was such that I was led to speak 
of the enemies of the home life, and among others 
mentioned the club, the fraternity and lodge. I drew 
a picture of a father neglecting his child, taken from 
life; the waiting of the little fellow until after lo 
o'clock at night that he might see the parent then at 
the lodge; his sudden illness that night, and death 
next day without recognition of any one. That when 
the father was told how the child, already sick in body, 
had sat up long after his usual bed-time that he might 
hear a story the parent had promised to read to him ; 
how the little fellow went to bed reluctantly, talking 
about his father; and how in his prayer he had 
drowsily lisped out — **God bless papa." When these 
things were told the man, he nearly went crazy with 
grief and remorse. 

As I related the life scene or incident, tears gushed 
intO' the eyes of the people all over the great audi- 
torium. Then in a stillness that could be felt, I lifted 
solemnly my right hand and said, "I arraign the lodge 
299 



300 



Graphic Sc^ni:s. 



before God and man as one of the great enemies of 
the church and home." 

In the audience was a steward who was a leading 
member of the church, and a Mason of the highest 
rank and standing. As the audience filed out of the 
broad portals of the cathedral he stood in one of the 
entrance ways, with several other of the stewards, and 
shaking his fist, said, "I will never rest until I put 
him out of this church as pastor because of what he 
said about Free Masonry." 

In the man's fury he repeated his vow to others 
tintil finally quite a commotion was raised, and rumors 
reaching the reporters of the city journals, they always 
quick to obtain anything sensational, announced tO' the 
public next morning in the papers, "That Dr. Carra- 
dine had made an awful attack on Alasonry, had 
deeply wounded the feelings of his congregation, and 
that a grave split and division had already begun," 
etc., etc., etc. 

Indeed, so much was said about the matter; so 
many misrepresentations were made of what had been 
said ; so many letters were written to me begging me 
to go on in the matter, that I had simply uncapped a 
bad thing, that I had struck the fraternity and Free 
Masonry in one of their greatest strongholds, St. 
Louis ; that the rage of the lodges and the city papers 
against me was simply the howl produced by having 
been struck, etc., etc., that finally I announced pub- 



'Ci.ASH With VRtt Masonry. 



301 



licly that on the following Sabbath I would preach 
on the subject of the Lodge and Secret Fraternity. 

Before the day arrived, several things happened 
of a notable nature. First came a petition from the 
Board of Stewards begging me not to preach the ser- 
mon concerning which I had given notice; that unit- 
edly they requested me not to say anything against 
lodges and orders, but to drop the whole matter. 

My reply was that, since I had publicly declared 
I would show up the hurt and peril of the Fraternity 
and Lodge System, that my soul had been flooded 
with the sweetest assurances from God that I was 
doing right, and the very thing Heaven wanted. 

The committee representing the Board took leave, 
gloomy-browed and barely civil. 

A second occurrence was a visit from a leading 
lady member of Centenary Church. I had just come 
in to luncheon when a carriage drove up, the bell 
rang, and a servant brought in the visitor's card. 

As I walked into the parlor I felt by laws we can 
hardly understand that an icy atmosphere filled the 
room. The lady to whom I bowed and offered my 
hand did not arise from her seat, but gave a look out 
of her eyes that actually stabbed. They were dagger 
thrusts. 

Then followed one of the most remarkable short 
visits and interviews I ever had from what is called 
"Heaven's best gift to man." The woman made 



302 



Graphic Scejn^s. 



desperate efforts to control herself, but could not". 
She grew white and red by turns. At times she 
trembled as if she had an ague. She came, she said 
to me with a pale, set face, to "warn me"; but she 
evidently forgot her mission and gave me a bitter 
tongue lashing. 

She informed me with that deadly white face of 
hers, and shaking voice, that the church would no 
longer put up with the kind of preaching they had 
been listening to for three months. That the Board 
of Stewards had resolved to appeal to the Bishop and 
one had already been written to who had sent me to 
'them. That if I did not completely and at once alter 
my pulpit subjects and style of doing things, that I 
should be moved in a hurry. 

After this mouth-scorcher, the woman burst into 
tears. Whether it was the weeping often indulged in 
by angry women, or was the result of a lashing of 
her own conscience, or the rebuke of God on her soul 
for "touching His anointed, and doing His prophets' 
harm," I cannot tell. It may have been a combination 
of the three. But after being an iceberg and volcano 
several times alternately, with occasional freshets and 
floods from her eyes ; she left as suddenly as she came. 
She went away with the quiet but firm assurance made 
to her by me that I would continue to preach and work 
under the leading and blessing of God exactly as I 
had been doing for the last six months. 



'Ci.ASH With TRtt Masonry. 303 



' The third happening was a letter from the Bishop 
who had appointed me to Centenary Church. The 
epistle was a remarkable document. It was an excla- 
mation, protestation, accusation, excoriation and ful- 
mination, all in one, winding up with a most fervent 
interrogation and lamentation. ''Why on earth are 
you trying to ruin and tear to pieces such a grand old 
church as Centenary?" 

I not only loved, but greatly admired the Bishop 
who wrote the mistaken letter, and answered him fully 
and as I hope satisfactorily with one of twenty pages. 
In it I informed the Bishop of the true state of things 
in the Cathedral Church; the spiritual deadness I 
had found in it; dissension and estrangement among 
members; wrong methods of raising money; worldli- 
ness ; and the lodge and many other things standing in 
the way of a genuine revival. That I was abusing 
no one; but simply presenting the great Gospel facts 
of repentance, restitution, faith, regeneration, conse- 
cration and entire sanctification ; that I was warning 
men about sin, and calling them to holiness ; that I 
was preaching with Christ in my heart and the Holy 
Ghost honoring every message, and yet no matter 
what I preached, it seemed to raise a fresh storm in 
the congregation; that the latest attack upon me 
now was from Freemasonry and the Lodges and Fra- 
ternies that filled St. Louis, and seemed to dominate 
the church as well. 



304 



Graphic Sc:eN^g. 



To this rejoinder, no reply was given. The Bishop, 
doubtless thinking with others that I was a hope- 
less case, and the best thing for me was an ecclesiasti- 
cal decapitation. 

Finally the Sabbath arrived, when the sermon in 
regard to Lodges and Secret Societies should be 
delivered. 

The Church with its main auditorium floor and 
spacious galleries, could seat two thousand people. 
But that morning not only every pew was filled, and 
galleries full, but hundreds stood in the outer aisles 
next to the wall. The pulpit platform was packed 
with women who sat down on the carpeted floor. 
The preacher had only a space of several square feet 
left him on which to stand. 

Five shorthand reporters were inside the altar rail 
with small tables and chairs. Some long-headed 
friend had warned me that the papers, through their 
reporters, or the city editor in the office, might play 
some kind of trick on me in misreporting, misquoting, 
or leaving out things I said, so that through his most 
timely suggestion I employed a special shorthand 
reporter, one of the best in the city, and gave him $25 
to put down every w^ord. I likewise counselled the 
man to bring plenty of paper, as I was not going to 
give a sermonette. 

That day I spoke one hour and twenty minutes; 
and stirred with the subject and helped of God, spoke 



CiyASH With Frke: Masonry. 305 



firmly, rapidly and clearly, so that I was heard by every 
one in the large audience. I presented the subject in 
what is called the cumulative argument form. I began 
with the least strong points, passed on to the stronger 
reasons of objection to the lodge, and in my half hour 
home stretch brought in my most forcible arguments 
against the evil that hurt the soul, the home and church 
alike. 

The four reporters sent by the papers of the city 
came expecting to hear a talk of thirty or forty 
minutes, and as the reader can see, ran out of paper 
about the middle of the sermon. After that they 
could do nothing but scribble fugitive expressions and 
sentences, gnaw their pencils and look foolish. Mean- 
time the reporter I had engaged swept on with flying 
stylographic pen and got every word of the discourse. 

Now look at some of the results. The next morn- 
ing and afternoon the city papers appeared, and 
announcing in head lines the full sermon against 
Masonry and Secret Societies that had been preached 
the day before in Centenary Church by myself. The 
instant that I read the reports I saw at a glance that 
only half of the discourse appeared, and that the 
stronger arguments, which were in the latter part of 
the sermon, did not appear at all. 

Taking a friend with me, I called on the editor of 
one of the leading city journals, directed his attention 



3o6 



Graphic SciSnes. 



to the way that I was wronged before the public, and 
requested redress. 

The editor said he was confident that his reporter 
had brought in the whole discourse, I told him of my 
own private reporter, and that it could be proved that 
his own man had not given over half of the sermon. 

The editor looked worried, and sent for the 
reporter. In a few minutes he stood before the group, 
and as his eyes fell upon me, and listened to the charge 
made against him, his countenance fell and he 
admitted that the complaint was true. 

The editor said to him, "Why did you say that you 
had made a complete report? Why did you not give 
the entire discourse as you were sent up to do ?" 

The man replied, "I ran out of paper about the 
time he was half through." 

At a signal from the editor, the faithless servant 
withdrew; when, looking at the editor, I said, "Will 
you not do me the justice of announcing in 3^our paper 
to-morrow these facts, and state that my strongest 
arguments and half of my sermon were not reported." 

The man's curt reply was, "I could not think of 
such a thing. It would be contrary to all rules of 
journalism." 

I rejoined, "Col. M , would you for a mere 

rule or custom, do a man in public life, the gross 
injustice your journal has done me, and refuse to 



Ci.ASH With V^Rtt Masonry. 



307 



rectify the wrong, when the wrong has been made 
plain to you ?" 

Col. M arose from his seat with a flushed face 

and angry manner, and replied, "1 have said all I have 
to say about this matter. I am very busy, and have 
no more time to lose. I wish you a good morning,'* 
and walked away to his desk. My friend and I 
retired to see the man no more on earth. 

Several years afterwards Col. M met a horri- 
ble death by falling headlong out of a third story 
window on the frozen ground beneath, and lay there 
the last half of the night. As I read the shocking 
intelligence, I dropped the paper, and said, ''May he 
in his appeal to the Great Judge of the Universe, find 
more justice and greater mercy than he showed me 
when I stood a wronged and pleading man before 
him in the office of his great and popular city journal." 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



Skirmishes and BattIvI^s. 

It all happened as Bro. Informant had said under 
the lamp-post. The stewards had Bro. Propeller 
elected in the Quarterly as a delegate to the District 
Conference. There this smiling, hand-shaking brother 
influenced the other lay delegates to elect Bro. Mason, 
as a delegate to the Annual Conference. Bro. Mason 
was not present but Bro. Propeller had him **put 
through," as it is called, and duly elected. 

Five months later the Annual Conference con- 
vened. The Bishop went down on the train with 
Bro. Mason, who seemed to have full possession of 
his ear. 

A petition, in spite of my request and protest, was 
sent from Centenary Church, signed by over eight 
hundred members, asking that their present pastor 
be returned. It was presented to the Bishop by a 
member of Centenary Church, who was a visitor to 
the place of assembly. But the Bishop placed it on 
his table, and never took the trouble to open the docu- 
ment, though he was told it contained over eight 
hundred signatures of good Methodist people. 

308 



Skirmishers and Batti.e:s. 309 



Just as Bro. Informant had said, the pastor was 
doomed, hopelessly sentenced, six months before the 
meeting- of the Annual Conference. 

On Saturday night the appointments of the Annual 
Conference were read by the Bishop to an assembly of 
over one hundred preachers, thirty lay delegates, and 
a large company of the citizens of the town where the 
session was held. 

I sat quietly among my brethren with a honey-like 
peace, and a depth of tranquillity in my soul that was 
indescribable and unspeakable. 

My District was reached last, and I heard another 
name read out for Centenary Church, and my own 
in connection with an appointment that was considered 
the weakest financially and numerically among the 
dozen Methodist churches in the great city covered 
by the St. I^ouis District. Hundreds of members had 
left it for other more desirable places of worship ; the 
congregation was a handful ; it had to have a mission- 
ary appropriation for several preceding years; while 
there was a movement then on foot among the official 
members left, to have the building sold, and the small 
membership left to be absorbed by other Methodist 
churches in the neighborhood. 

As the Episcopal Axe descended upon my head, 
and I was ecclesiastically beheaded in the presence of 
the large crowd filling the building, the honey exper- 
ience was instantly changed into a flame of Heavenly 



310 



Graphic Sc^n^s. 



fire, and the peace became a wine-like joy, almost 
impossible to keep under control. 

I learned afterwards that a number of eyes were 
fixed upon me to see how I received this Conference 
humiliation rebuke and overthrow. But at the 
moment I was expected to exhibit surprise, grief, 
mortification, chagrin, and possibly resentment, my 
soul was fairly reeling and staggering under a bless- 
ing poured upon me by the Son of God. 

Fully seventy of the preachers went up next morn- 
ing on the train speeding northward to St. Louis. 
Hardly any of them drew near me, some doubtless 
regarding me as a man under Episcopal disfavor and 
so doomed, while others perhaps thought I was 
crushed with sorrow and desired to be left alone. 
These sat off Hke Job's friends, and silently and 
mournfully contemplated the being who had been 
hurled in a moment from the largest to one of the 
smallest appointments in the District and Conference. 

But while this divided opinion existed about me, 
I myself, was already full of plans about the new 
charge, had decided upon a big protracted meeting, 
knew I would have a great revival, and determined 
that under God's blessing I would bring the old church 
back to days and times of former glory and power. 

The city papers were brought on the train a few 
stations up the road, and I read my own name in large 
type, followed by editorial comments to the effect that 



SKIRMISHi:S AND BaTTIvE:S. 3II 



I was guilty of teaching heresy, had nearly ruined 
Centenary Church, that the stewards and membership 
had appealed to the Bishop, and he, the agitator, dis- 
turber, church splitter, and propagator of false doctrine 
had been properly dealt with, and a better man put 
in his place. That grand old Centenary Church, so 
well and favorably known to the public, was to be 
congratulated on its deliverance, etc., etc., etc. 

I knew as I perused these lines that millions all 
over the land would read this same long column of 
misstatement, misrepresentation and slander, and that 
my side of the case, and vindication would only come 
out at the Day of Judgment. There was a minute or 
so of genuine heartsickness, but the next moment came 
another smile from God, another touch of the hand 
of Christ, and my heart swelled with joy that I had 
been permitted to suffer shame for the name and sake 
of the Son of God. I found out that day that God's 
favor was like life, and His loving kindness better 
than life. My heart burned in me like a ball of fire, 
and my soul was literally melted with a great tender 
love for everybody. 

On arrival at home two white servants employed 
in the house gave notice that they would quit next day. 
They were under the impression that I had committed 
some crime, as the papers were down on me, and had 
been degraded by the Bishop, and sO' on the principle 
of rats fleeing from a falling house or sinking ship, 



312 



Graphic Sci:nj;s. 



they proposed to leave the man on whom so many 
misfortunes were descending. 

That afternoon I went down town. To my sur- 
prise I noticed as I went among the stores that men 
who formerly met me with cordiality and the greatest 
respect, now avoided me, walked back into office and 
counting room when I approached, and showed in 
most unmistakable ways that the pastor of Centenary 
Church was one thing, and the preacher in charge of 
a Down-Hill Church was another being altogether. 

This was quite a blow to me, and the heart and 
throat felt sore for quite awhile until I could get on 
my knees and talk it over with the Lord. After that 
it was all right again. 

Returning to my Study to get up some notes for 
a farewell talk at the prayer meeting, I was so blessed 
with an outpouring of the Spirit on my soul, that I 
threw the pen down and begged God for the first 
and last time in my life to stay His hand, that I could 
not stand more and live. 

A prominent preacher visited me just before the 
evening service, and asked me for the sake of Cen- 
tenary Church to advise my friends to remain there 
and not follow me to First Church. This request was 
inspired by the fact that a large number of the mem- 
bership were indignant over the high-handed, unjust 
removal of the preacher, and were threatening to leave 
not only Centenary Church, but Methodism itself. 



'Skirmishi:s and Battiv^s. 313 

They said that when a few rich men and a Mason 
could take matters in their hands of such grave import, 
and completely ignore the rights, requests and petition 
of eight hundred of the other members, they did not 
care to stay any longer in such an Ecclesiastical 
Despotism. 

At the conclusion of my talk that night, 
I urged the people who were my friends to remain at 
Centenary. I told them that by leaving they 
would bring reproach on the Holiness Cause, and by 
remaining they could push as well as preserve the 
work begun, while I opened up a new field in the 
central part of the city. 

The next day I received a note from the Presiding 
Elder requesting that I would call at his home on a 
certain avenue. I did so, and found Dr. Elder in his 
study enveloped in a cloud of tobacco smoke. 

The Doctor was very gracious to me, and assumed 
a pitying, compassionate manner without indulging 
in like words. He also seemed anxious to communi- 
cate something to me, but apparently was hindered 
and prevented by the cool, collected appearance of the 
preacher before him. 

I was perfectly aware that Dr. Elder had been 
present at the "Conclave of the Seven" on Millionaire 
avenue, and had been prominent in my removal at the 
late Conference. So the attempted air of sympathy 
was all lost on the visitor. 



314 



'Graphic Sce:ni:s. 



With mucH puffing of his Havana cigar, and clear- 
ing of the throat, and restless, inquiring glances at my 
quiet, impassive face, Dr. Elder informed me in a 
most disconnected manner that I had a number of 
v^arm friends among the moneyed members of the 
various Methodist churches in the city, and that if 
-my preaching — ahem — would be such as to suit them 
! — ahem! ahem! — these brethren — ahem — the preach- 
ing — those brethren — ahem — their liberal support — • 
the preaching — ahem ! ahem ! ahem ! 

Poor man ! he still had some sense of shame left, 
and still had some respect for the preacher before him 
whom he had with others tried to crush — and it was 
hard to add insult to injury and actually try to bribe 
him to change the character and matter of his preach- 
ing for the sake of the silver and gold shekels of cer- 
tain wealthy men down town. 

I acted as if I did not understand, and soon arose 
to go. Then Dr. Elder stood up and putting his arms 
around me, gave me a warm hug and advised the 
departing visitor not to preach on Holiness, or have 
any Holiness meetings at First Church, where I had 
been stationed for the ensuing year. 

Sickened with the tobacco breath, and tobacco- 
saturated clothing of Dr. Elder, and still more sick- 
ened at what had transpired in the study, I took as 
hurried a departure as the laws of politeness would 
allow me. 



Skirmishers and Batti.eJs. 315 



I went directly to a large carpenter shop and 
ordered a billboard eight feet long and two feet wide, 
on which I had painted in gilded letters the various 
meetings of my new station, or appointment. 

On Friday the handsome sign was up, and Dr. 
Elder, who had called at the church office to see me 
on a piece of business, was attracted on leaving by 
the ornamental bulletin board. He stood before it 
admiringly. Taking out his eyeglasses, and pointing 
with his ebony cane, he read through the Sabbath 
services; Stewards' meeting Monday night; Woman's 
Missionary Society on Tuesday afternoon; Wednes- 
day night prayer service, and then came the radiant, 
glittering notice : 

"Holiness Meeting Thursday night, at 7 : 30 
o'clock." 

He gave a gasp; quit reading; put his eyeglasses 
in his pocket, grasped his stick, and, turning around, 
pegged his way up the street without another word. 

I doubt not that he gave me up that afternoon, 
finally and forever, as being incorrigible and as a 
hopeless case. 

Sunday morning the spacious auditorium of First 
Church was packed with the largest congregation it 
had ever seen. Not even at the dedication had such 
an assembly gathered. The stewards were kept in a 
trot trying to seat the crowd; while the old colored 
sexton in his amazement forgot to pump wind in the 



3i6 



Graphic Sc^ne:s. 



organ, and almost fell off his stool craning his neck 
to notice the steady inflowing of the people, while he 
cried out: 'Xook yonder! de house done got full!'* 

Both of the Sunday services, morning and evening, 
were remarkable for unction, and the presence and 
power of the Holy Ghost. There were forty acces- 
sions by letter that day, twenty-five from Centenary, 
and fifteen from other churches. 

The next morning at the Preachers' Meeting I 
reported forty accessions by letter, when Dr. Elder, 
who listened with evident annoyance, broke in with 
a most disgusted look and tone, and said: "That is 
no gain to Methodism." 

Filled with an ineffable peace, I gave a tranquil smile 
and made no reply. I felt inwardly assured that God 
would vindicate me at that point, as he had at all 
others. 

When later in the year I reported hundreds of 
accessions to Methodism not by letter, but by profes- 
sion of faith, the vindication came, and Dr. Elder sat 
lock jawed listening to a report that could not be slur- 
red at or denied. 

But now it soon became evident in the Preachers* 
Meeting, that the Monday morning report of First 
Church in the total of conversions, reclamations, sanc- 
tifications and accessions went ahead of the combined 
figures of all the other twenty charges in the District. 

As these reports appeared in the St. Louis Chris- 



Skirmishes and Battli:s. 317 



tian Advocate each Thursday, naturally everybody 
who read the paper saw the comparison and contrast, 
and saw that First Church was leading far ahead in 
the race, and behold, there was much smiling on the 
part of a large number of people, and much frowning 
indulged in by perhaps a still larger company of men 
and women. 

Whereupon Dr. Elder moved one morning in the 
Preachers' Meeting that separate reports of the differ- 
ent charges in the District should not be published, 
but they should be lumped together, and be printed 
as a total of the District, so as not to create any invidi- 
ous comparison and thereby engender bad feeling. 

I gave a quiet, glad laugh which I had learned in 
Canaan, and felt a happy smile belonging to the same 
country steahng over my face, said **Glory" and voted 
with the rest for the change. 

What more shall we say? 

During my pastorate, there were over seven hun- 
dred and fifty accessions to First Church, so that it 
became a leading appointment. One hundred chairs 
were bought and placed in the aisles to accommodate 
the big audience. A great revival broke out and, 
what is more, steadily remained. Five class meetings 
blazed between Sabbaths. I preached four times 
every week with salvation at every service. The 
number of conversions during the pastorate went over 
one thousand. There were hundreds of reclamations, 



3i8 Graphic Sc^ne:s. 

and hundreds of sanctifications. The finances kept 
pace with the spiritual life and power of the church. 
A dozen preachers and evangelists went out as an 
additional result of the work, while a Down Town 
Mission, and a Home for Fallen Girls were started 
at this time, that have never closed their doors, nor 
ceased to be blessed and used of God from that dajr 
to this present hour. 

Time would fail to tell of all the wonderful hap- 
penings of divine grace and power that took place 
in First Church, at this time and period. These events 
would fill volumes. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



Tut Victory and Re:vivaIv at First Church. 

First Church, in the very heart of the city o£ St. 
Louis, was a large stone edifice, and had been the 
pastorate at one time of Bishop Marvin, of the M. E. 
Church South. But unfortunately for its numerical 
and financial interests three other churches of the 
same denomination had been built within a short dis- 
tance on different sides, and had tapped its member- 
ship and injured it in numerous ways. Hence the 
charge was now quite a weak one, the congregation a 
corporal's guard, and a missionary appropriation had 
been made by the annual conference to help it along 
in the time of its waning influence and power. So 
little hope had the small band of members remaining 
of any future for the church, that a petition as has been 
said, from the official board had gone up to the proper 
authorities asking for the sale of the building, when, of 
course, the congregation would be merged into the 
membership of the nearest Methodist places of wor- 
ship. 

It would seem that in such a condition, that a 
Down-Hill Church would have grasped even at a 
straw, and welcome any change, for as the appoint- 
319 



320 



'Graphic Sci^n^s. 



ment had about struck bottom, it stands to reason tHat 
any alteration would be for the better. 

This I believe was the feeling of a number, but 
certainly not all; for on the second day after my 
appointment, I received in my mail, application for 
fourteen church letters or certificates of dismissal. 

I was not at all dismayed or overwhelmed. By 
checkered ecclesiastical and ministerial experiences I 
had learned already that there was light on the other 
side of a lot of discouraging things. I had developed 
nerve and moral muscle through many tests and trials 
in the course of my ministry, and above all had learned 
to write church letters under Gideon. This interest- 
ing Bible character wrote twenty-two thousand on a 
single occasion, and nine thousand seven hundred the 
next day. This left him with a small membership of 
three hundred, but he had a congregation worthy of 
the name, and with them he had overwhelming victory. 

So, when I received the fourteen applications, I 
instantly sat down at my desk, wrote out the certifi- 
cates of dismissal and mailed them at once so that the 
applicants could receive their discharge the very same 
day. 

The conviction on me was that God was going to 
do a great work, and wanted the right kind of people 
to be in it; that cowards, compromisers, man fearers, 
ease-lovers, and worldlings would be a burden and 
hindrance in the hard momentous campaign to follow. 



R^vrvAiv AT First Church. 321 



and so it was best and even blessed for them to go. 

In return for the fourteen who fled at the incoming 
of a Full Salvation Pastor, and at the prospect of a 
real Gospel war that was to take place, God sent me 
over seven hundred and fifty to take their place. 
Most of this last named company came as the result 
of the Holiness Revival which followed. 

Still among those of the old membership that were 
left, there were individuals who with words and deed, 
tongue and influence, set out to bring to naught the 
Gospel teaching and work that was inaugurated by 
the new pastorate. 

Prominent among these opposers were four 
women. Two of these females were married, were 
about the age of thirty, and possessed the same name, 
although they were not related in any way. 

Their opposition lasted just about one month, 
when I was called upon to bury them, and that, too, 
in a few days of each other. 

I have no comment to make on this, only as the 
women had some social as well as a strong church 
influence, it would appear to some as if God was 
clearing the way for the great revival that broke upon 
First Church in two or three months, and that lasted 
without a break one year and nine months. 

The third woman while literally raging around 
from house to house, criticizing, fault-finding and 
condemning every sermon, service, meeting and spir- 



322 



Graphic Scsnss. 



itual result of the new administration, slipped one day 
on the frozen pavement, injured her spine, and was 
confined in great agony to her bed four months, before 
she died. I visited her almost every day, and saw her 
become a penitent over her conduct, and die in perfect 
peace with God. The fourth woman was smitten 
with an illness about the same time the other three 
were afflicted, which confined her first to her bed, and 
then to her room for nearly a year. In that time so 
much kindness was shown her by the Holiness people ; 
and I was so faithful in pastoral attention, reading 
the Bible and praying by her bedside, that not only 
another anti-holiness gun was spiked, but when she 
was restored to health and returned to church, she 
came as the friend of her pastor, and the well-wisher 
of the revival which had by that time swept every- 
thing before it, was in possession of the field and had 
come to stay. 

I never for an instant believed that God had afflicted 
these four women because of their personal enmity 
and opposition to me, but I did feel deeply impressed 
that the God who had smitten the Philistines for their 
mistreatment of His Holy Ark, and scourged individ- 
uals as well as communities for their opposition to and 
rejection of His truth was repeating His dealings at 
First Church appointment. I felt that God was stand- 
ing by His truth rather than a mere man, and was 



R^vivAi, AT First Church. 323 



preparing the church for the battle, and getting the 
field ready for victory. 

Before the revival came, I did everything I could, 
and urged my membership to the observance of every 
condition and the performance of every duty that I 
felt was necessary and incumbent upon them that the 
Holy Ghost might fall upon us with power, and a 
genuine work of salvation take place and abide in 
our midst, before the eyes of all the people. 

One thing I did was to request as many of the 
congregation as would and could, to meet with me in 
the church for an all-night prayer meeting tO' suppli- 
cate God for a genuine, old time. New Testament 
revival of religion. 

In response to this request one hundred and thirty 
of my members started in at nine o'clock with a prayer 
meeting that lasted until the breaking of the day. 

This service became historic in the church and 
monumental in the lives of a number who were pres- 
ent. Somewhere between two and three o'clock in 
the morning there was a perfect downpour of the 
Spirit on the assembly. Seven or eight were sancti- 
fied, several were converted, and Mrs. M. E. Otto 
received her call and anointing for the Rescue Work 
in which she has been engaged ever since in the city 
of St. Louis. 

I also started a holiness meeting and five class 
meetings, and urged the people in my preaching to 



324 



Graphic Sc^ne;s. 



the obtainment of full salvation if they ever expected 
to see backsliders reclaimed and sinners converted to 
God. 

This v^ith constant pastoral visiting, praying and 
talking with the people about their souls at their homes, 
caused flames of spiritual life to spring up in indi- 
vidual hearts and family circles that soon precipitated 
the general blaze. 

Among other means adopted, I appointed a prayer 
meeting composed of sixty or seventy of my most 
spiritual members, and held one hour before the Sun- 
day night service, the object of which was to implore 
the blessing and power of God upon the sermon to be 
delivered. 

This prayer meeting was remotely located on the 
third floor of the church building, but such was the 
hold this company got on God, and such the Spirit's 
power upon them as they stormed the Gates of 
Heaven, that not only the sound of their voices but 
the glory of the meeting was felt all over the house 
of God. 

At the same hour the Epworth League, run on 
deeply spiritual lines, was singing, testifying and pray- 
ing in the lecture room on the first floor. This placed 
the people who were gathering in the auditorium on 
the second floor between two fires, so to speak. And 
here I often beheld hundreds of men and women sit- 
ting thoughtfully and solemnly as they listened to the 



Re:vivai. at First Church. 325 



prayer meetings going on, one above and the other 
below them. 

Then when the two assemblies, prompt to the 
minute came pouring down and sweeping up into the 
auditorium, their faces ashine with the light of 
Heaven, their souls aflame with the love of God and 
souls, and all of them expecting victory, who needs 
to be told what kind of service followed, how power- 
ful was the battle and how glorious the triumph of 
the Cross. 

There was not a Sabbath night, but after the ser- 
mon had been preached, and the call made, the long 
altar would be lined with seekers for pardon and holi- 
ness. Sometimes it would be double lined. Then 
while volumes of sacred song would fill the buildings, 
experienced ones would instruct and labor with the 
penitents, and men and women gifted and mighty in 
prayer would prevail with God, move three worlds, 
and bring down billows of glory and tidal waves of 
salvation on the people. Such crying, laughing, shout- 
ing, clapping of hands and rejoicing over reclamations, 
conversions and sanctifications, may be imagined, but 
could never be adequately and perfectly described. 

Meanwhile, a great body of the audience sat look- 
ing on, interested, sympathizing, convicted and trou- 
bled, and would not leave until the final doxology had 
been sung. It was a rare thing for this dismissal to 
take place before eleven o'clock on Sunday night. 



326 



Graphic Sce:n^s. 



A German Christian who lived in Louisville, Ky., 
attended the service one Sabbath evening. He did not 
understand all the words of the English language. 
So in meeting me some months afterwards in another 
city, he said : 

"I attended your church one Sunday night. After 
you finished your sermon, your altar was filled with 
penitents and seekers. It was soon emptied, and you 
made another call, and it was nearly filled again, and 
cleaned up again before you dismissed the congrega- 
tion at eleven o'clock. Oh!" he exclaimed, rubbing 
his hands and smiling all over his face, "It was beau- 
tiful SCENERY that night !" 

The revival had come! And it was on in power, 
prior to my annual appointed and advertised protracted 
meeting; and long before the engaged singer and 
evangelists had arrived. 

I conclude by saying that evidently the adversary 
again overreached himself. He thought he would 
gag silence and crush a messenger of God, and stop 
the sweep of the Holiness Alovement by a Conference 
appointment. So he employed Bros. Propeller, Free 
Mason, Banker, Wall Street, Stock Dealer and Dr. 
Elder to carry out his scheme. And lo ! and behold 1 
by the execution of their plan, a broken-down church 
was brought back to life and strength, many hundreds 



Ri:vivAiv AT First Church. 327 



of souls were saved and sanctified, and a greater, 
mightier and farther reaching revival occurred in a 
Down-Hill Church than ever would have taken place 
in Sky Scraper Cathedral. 



AUG 28 \9U 



